I Can't Believe It's the Bride
by MatildaHummingbird
Summary: SHASSIE FIC! Sequel to 'I Can't Believe its Not Spencer'. Shawn runs into Marcus at a wedding reception, but before he and Gus can make their leave, the festivities become deadly. NOW FINISHED!
1. A Killer Wedding

**Author's Note: **Yes. It is a sequel. No, I do not feel guilty. Also, if you don't know already – I've started blogging. Yes, me. Not as MatildaHummingbird, but actually me – Jo. The URL has been made my homepage on my profile so please check it out, and if you like what you read – follow me!

Quick Note: I will not be completing the Fics 'Dream Ring' and 'Lassie Hates Ramen Noodles' – if anyone wants to take them off my hands, feel free to do so. Until then they will be kept under my penname as unfinished works.

With that said – please enjoy this fic and keep in mind, that as usual I am horrible at re-reading my own work. I picked at it as best I could, and fixed what errors I found, but I'm sure there's still typos aplenty so I apologize in advanced!

~Matilda.

**Warning: This chapter contains an x-rated scene involving two men and a struck stop bathroom. If that makes you uncomfortable DO NOT read this fic!**

**A -**_**Killer-**_** Wedding**

It was a wedding, the small church just between the cities of Santa Barbara and Coral Haven was adorable, and quaint. Every car parked outside of it was parked as neatly as could be. The day was beautiful, the sun was shining, and it was just warm enough that the citizen's of the surrounding California cities -could easily walk outside without breaking into a sheet of sweat. However for the residents inside the church, it was currently an exaggerated 1 million degrees, a temperature that didn't sit well with a Psychic who was currently dressed in a suit.

"I still don't understand why we have to be here." Shawn grumbled and tried straitening his tie, he didn't exactly hate formal events, but he never agreed to going to one where he barely knew the people involved. Being here? Was all Gus' idea. "Tell me again why we're here?"

"We went to high school with the bride's sister." Gus reminded Shawn then. The two sat in the church pew in uncomfortable silence, the wedding taking place around them was dull. The vows were spoken lowly, the priest's voice was dry and at least 20 people sitting in the pews in front of them -were texting.

"Romantic." Shawn mused a bit bitterly, and he sunk in his seat. Though truthfully, he wished he could get to his own phone. He wanted nothing more than to be able to text Lassie and tell him how incredibly bored he was without him. Unfortunately for him, Gus had talked him into leaving his phone in the glove compartment of the blueberry, thus leaving Shawn with no way of connecting to his boyfriend.

Shawn and Lassiter had been dating now for roughly 10 months, sometimes Shawn had trouble wrapping his head around the fact that they had lasted this long. Of course now it didn't seem like such a mystery. Shawn watched the ceremony before him drag on and on, and he couldn't help but judge. The groom was like – what? 10? Maybe 15 years older than the bride? This wedding had 'stage' written all over it.

"I bet he has a huge..." Shawn started talking but Gus cut him off.

"Don't be rude Shawn!" Gus cursed in a whisper.

"Will." Shawn finished. "I bet he has a huge will. Why else would she be subjecting herself to that?"

"They've been together ten years." Gus said. "Who cares, just drop it."

"Fine." Shawn whispered. "But I'm stealing the cake toppers later."

Gus' response was to just roll his eyes and lean back in his seat, the ceremony continued and Shawn fell back into an uncomfortable silence, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.

Finally – _finally_ the ceremony had ended and Shawn and Gus were having coffee at a truck stop before heading back to the hall connected to the little church for the reception. The reception wasn't for another half n hour, so Gus had graciously given Shawn permission to fish his phone out of the car. That finally meant that Shawn now had ample time, and the means to give his boyfriend a phone call. He excused himself from the small table and whipped out his phone heading into the bathroom whilst dialling Lassie's home number.

Lassiter answered and he sounded a tad distracted. Shawn could hear the detective's television on in the background, and developed this image in his head of Lassiter watching cartoons, wrapped in a blanket and eating cereal. Shawn grinned, even though he knew cartoons wasn't even close to what Lassiter was watching.

"Hello?"

"Lassie!" Shawn greeted. "How are you enjoying your Saturday without me?"

Lassiter from his spot on the couch straightened up a bit, and grabbing for his remote, he turned down the volume on his television set. "It's quiet." Lassiter admitted. "I actually debated taking a nap earlier."

Shawn gave a low chuckle. "You? Nap? During your Duke marathon?"

Lassiter's jaw slacked a bit. "Now how did you know I was having a Duke marathon?"

"I had a vibe." Shawn teased. "Well that and I saw all the John Wayne DVDs sitting in alphabetical order on your coffee table before I left last night – so where are you?"

"The Night Riders." Lassiter said lightly. "It's a little far down the list, so admittedly, I may have skipped a few titles."

Shawn smiled into the phone. "Thus ruining your perfect alphabetical plan." Shawn chuckled. "I'm rubbing off on you I see..."

"I like The Night Riders." Lassiter defended. "So I put on The Night Riders."

"Hmm..." Shawn was barely listening; just the thought of rubbing off on Lassie had given him a wicked idea. Turning, he locked the door behind him. "So I'm not rubbing off on you then?"

"No." Lassiter said. "You just like to think you are."

"I like thinking about a lot of things..." Shawn said lowly. "Especially rubbing off on you – detective."

From his couch, Lassiter's brows started heading for his hair line. "Shawn?"

"Yeah, say my name..." Shawn encouraged. From inside the bathroom of the truck stop, his free hand was massaging his chest.

"Shawn..." Lassiter obliged, but he was a little confused thus changing his tone. "Spencer – where are you calling me from?"

"Hmmm." Shawn answered. "Some coffee place outside of the city, and I'm craving your touch." Shawn moaned into the phone.

Lassiter's face went completely red. "Shawn stop it!" He encouraged. "You're in public, you could get arrested for indecent exposure – hang up the phone."

Shawn knew that Lassiter wouldn't be into it right away – when it came to stuff like this Lassiter had to be coaxed and teased, not that Shawn currently minded. He was in a mood.

"Only if I get caught." Shawn explained, and his hand travelled down his chest to stroke at his stomach – though he still hadn't reached past the fabric of his shirt. "Are you going to catch me Lassie?"

Lassiter fought it, Shawn's voice was low and so -so- inviting...But the fact of the matter was, Shawn was currently calling him from a public washroom. He could get caught, by either a cop, or even worse, another man who might not think twice about taking advantage. The feelings that circled in Lassiter's gut now were odd; sexual desire, anxiety, and jealousy all balled into one. Lassiter sighed. Shawn always had that effect on him. "Don't." Lassiter tried again.

"I wish you were with me." Shawn purred. "I need your hands on me Lassie...all over..." Shawn's hand went under his shirt, he pretended it was Lassie touching him, the first sensation of skin on skin making Shawn gasp and moan a little louder. The gasp was all Lassiter needed to hear.

"Yeah?" Lassiter gave in, part of him still wanted Shawn to hang up and smarten up, but the rest of him was listening to the pleading tone in Shawn's voice and Lassiter couldn't resist. His own free hand fell into his lap.

"Yeah..." Shawn whispered. "Nice and rough, ripping off my clothes."

"God dammit Spencer..." Lassiter's breath hitched, and he could feel himself getting hard. His hand fumbled at his pants. "Is that what you want from me?"

"So bad." Shawn breathed into the phone. "I want you throw me down on that desk of yours, completely naked..." By now Shawn had snaked his hand into his own pants, and he was squeezing the full length of his arousal, picturing very clearly the things Lassie would be doing to him on that desk...

Lassiter had his own hand on his member now, and his breath was making his phone slightly stick to his cheek. "Am I slamming you into the desk?" Lassiter asked. "Am I making you beg for it?"

Shawn was stroking faster, the image in his head was him and Lassie, splayed on Lassiter's desk, Lassiter's hands all over his body while Lassiter made love to him from behind. "God yes Lassie..." The imagery was too much, Shawn was going to finish.

"Then beg for it." Lassie growled a bit, and the rough tone in his voice made Shawn break out into a shiver. The first time Lassiter had growled in bed, Shawn had thought it was a little weird. However Shawn quickly learned it meant that Lassiter was becoming possessive, and possessive meant rough, and god knew Shawn loved rough.

"Please Lassie..." Shawn's voice heightened a bit; he couldn't control the way Lassiter made him sound so desperate. The screen of his cell phone at this point was completely fogged over. "Give it to me."

Lassiter had his hand wrapped tightly around himself, pumping in a feverish pace, he sunk into his couch, his moans coming out hoarse cries...Shawn might not be with him, but he was making the detective feel amazing. "Say my name. Say it."

"Uh..." Shawn was almost there...he kept slowing down to try to make himself last just a little longer, but Lassiter's demands couldn't get ignored. "..Carlton...Carlton..."

"Yes." Lassiter breathed. "More..more...cum for me.."

"Carlton, Carlton!" Shawn lost control; he let out another high moan and spilled himself completely onto his hand. From his couch Lassiter could tell exactly when Shawn reached that breaking point, and the way Shawn cried out had Lassiter losing it at the same time.

Both men took a second to catch their breaths, Shawn on his end, looked down at his hand, covered and dripping, Shawn had been careful not to get any on his pants...After all he still had a reception to go to..

"You were fantastic." Shawn purred, and he cradled the phone with his chin to wash his hands.

"I kind of hate you right now." Lassiter grumbled a bit, and surprisingly that reaction made Shawn laugh.

"Of course you do Lassie, let me guess. I ruined another shirt?" Shawn's voice was teasing. On his end, Lassiter looked down at his shirt; half unbuttoned and stained with his seed.

"You owe me a wardrobe."

"I'll get right on that." Shawn's voice softened considerably, and as easy as counting from 1-3 the couple went from talking dirty to talking normally. Sometimes Shawn thought it was scary just how easily he could incorporate the detective into every aspect of his life. "I have to go...I left Gus waiting."

"...You left your best friend in a coffee shop, so you could call your boyfriend from a public restroom and masturbate?"

"Nope!" Shawn said assuredly. "Originally it was going to be a friendly check in call, the masturbation just kind of happened."

Back on his couch, Lassiter frowned. "You're a horrible person." He was joking. Partly. Shawn just laughed again.

"I'll see you tonight Lassie." Shawn's voice became soft.

"See you tonight." Lassiter agreed and the two hung up. Lassiter sat in silence, like Shawn he was astounded at how easily the two fit together in every way, only the fact didn't scare him, it gave him some sort of weird hope. His clean hand travelled to his pocket, and he took a second to squeeze the ring box he had been carrying on him for 4 months now.

Meanwhile Shawn finished washing up, and straitening up his clothes, and he exited the bathroom heading to Gus who looked annoyed. "Dude." Gus exasperated. "You took so long."

"Sorry." Shawn said casually, "but that church was really stuffy, and you know me, sometimes stuffy air effects me in a bad way."

Gus immediately held up his hand to stop Shawn from talking. "No more details after stuffy air – please."

Shawn gave a bit of an evil grin and clapped his hands. "Anyway are we done here?"

"Yeah we're done." Gus said. "Let's get the bill and head to the reception."

The reception was just as small and quaint as the wedding, friends of the bride and groom all collaborated in the center of the room, and they were talking about how happy they were for the couple. Shawn and Gus on the other hand were at the bar, ordering shots and trying to figure out who was who.

"I think the guy with the goatee was in my art class." Shawn mused. "He was really bad at pottery."

"Dude." Gus quirked a brow. "You took art?"

"Kind of, it was an easy A." Shawn said. "Well at first it would've been an easy A, but then it just became the class I skipped to go see..." Shawn cut himself off then. He was about to mention Marcus Tuly, a man he hadn't thought about or seen in 10 months when he was solving the Atkinson murder, a man he had been involved with years ago, a man whose father was partially responsible for the bullet scar in Shawn's side.

"Ah." Gus understood. Mentioning Marcus meant mentioning the Atkinson case, and even though Gus wasn't too heavily involved, the case still ended with him getting knocked out and nearly losing his best friend. Neither of them liked talking about it. "Another shot?"

"Another shot." Shawn agreed, and they turned back to the bar, easily changing the subject. "Hey Gus, don't look now, but I think one of the bride's maids is checking you out."

"What?" Gus lifted his head a bit, but he didn't turn to look. "For how long?"

"Since we got here." Shawn answered. "But now she's making it a little too obvious." Shawn against his better judgement waved to the girl with a goofy grin on his face. "Gus look, she's waving back."

"No." Gus gritted his teeth a bit. "Shawn stop it, you know I'm dating Juliet."

"I know." Shawn said in a light tone. "But the sooner she gets over here, the sooner you can turn her down, and then the night will be less awkward."

"You're waving her over here? !" Gus protested, and sure enough just as he said that, a female voice broke between them.

"Hi! I'm Nora!"

"And I'm leaving." Shawn winked and skipped away. He took the opportunity away from Gus to examine the reception hall; it was well decorated with pink flowers and black ribbons, the bridal table containing a giant cup cake tower rather than a tier cake. Shawn's sweet tooth was immediately enticed and he weaved through wedding guests to get to it. Shawn's hand wrapped around a chocolate cupcake -when a hand came down a little hard on his shoulder, out of reflex, Shawn jumped and turned ready to strike. Only to come face to face with the man whose name he just narrowly avoided earlier in conversation.

"Marcus." Shawn's mouth went completely dry; he suddenly didn't want that cupcake anymore.

"Small world." Marcus offered lightly, "I honestly didn't think you'd be here." Shawn noticed that Marcus was dressed in a suit – of course he was. Everyone was.

"I didn't think _you'd_ be here." Shawn countered. "I didn't see you at the wedding."

"Traffic was backed up, I didn't make the wedding." Marcus explained.

"Backed up?" Shawn repeated – why the hell was he making small talk? "Gus and I drove here too – traffic was fine."

"I'm not staying in Santa Barbara; I came in from Coral Haven."

"Ah." Shawn said. Good god he could use another drink. "Well, I should...get back to Gus now. You have a good night."

"Yeah." Marcus replied a little awkwardly. "You have a good night too."

Shawn made a move to leave, completely ready to leave the reception entirely, but before he could take a step, Marcus was joined by another man. The man was shorter than Marcus by a head, and his cropped auburn hair was a compliment to Marcus' darker spikes. He easily linked arms with Marcus, and didn't think twice about giving Shawn a warning glare.

"Marcus baby, who is this?" The man's voice was oddly grating.

"Randall. This is Shawn Spencer. Shawn is a frie- old acquaintance of mine. He's the psychic I told you about."

Randall gave Shawn another look over, and seemed to grow a rather smug expression on his face, like he was suddenly sure he could take Shawn down in a fight. Shawn oddly thought that was funny. "Yeah." Shawn agreed with Marcus. "I was just heading back to my friend."

"Oh what?" Randall said a little hotly. "Not going to stick around for small talk?"

"Honey..." Marcus used a small voice. "He was just here grabbing a cupcake."

"Well." Randall caved. "Okay, I actually need to make a quick call. Enjoy the rest of the reception Shawn; I'm sure we'll be running into each other later."

Randall left, leaving a very flustered Shawn with Marcus who looked down right embarrassed. "Randall seems nice." Shawn said sarcastically. "Very comfortable with you."

"He's actually really sweet." Marcus tried. "Once you get passed the jealousy issues."

"He's got issues alright..." Shawn grumbled, and he had to wonder if Randall knew about his and Marcus' past. Even though it didn't mean anything to him, Shawn delighted in the idea of telling Randall exactly how he and Marcus used to know each other, and watching Randall's face turn 30 shades of red. "How long have you two been dating?" Shawn asked curiously.

"I met him right after I moved out of Santa Barbara actually, and uh - we're not dating."

Shawn blinked. "You're not dating?"

"Oh no." Marcus explained. "We're actually engaged."

Shawn blinked twice. "You're not wearing a ring."

"I know." Marcus said. "It's getting fitted."

"Right." Shawn had no idea why he was still standing there. Finally though he found his footing. "I'm going back to Gus." Shawn darted back across the reception hall, where Gus was still sitting – and still talking to Nora.

"Yeah she's the light of my life." Gus was explaining. "The mornings when I wake up next to that pretty smile are the best. I can't get enough of her."

Nora was swooning. "Oh! Your girlfriend Juliet is like- the luckiest girl in the world! You're like a prince right out of a romance novel!"

Shawn couldn't help but laugh at that, he stepped forward. "Nora, was it? Yeah, sorry to interrupt but I need a word with Gus if you don't mind."

"Oh not at all." Nora gave a wide smile and left.

Gus looked to Shawn and noticed the look on his face. "Everything alright?"

"No we need to leave" Shawn said, "-and now. I just ran into Marcus."

"Are you serious?" Gus looked stunned. "Why is he even here?"

"Guessing by his age, I'm thinking friend of the groom." Shawn said quickly. "But anyway, he's here, its making me feel all loony-binish, and he has this fiancé with him I'm more than positive thinks I'm a potential threat."

"Alright, fair enough." Gus said. "We'll go find our coats and head home, this reception is boring anyway and it's not like either of us have a reason to stay."

Right at that moment, there was a blood curdling scream from one of the back rooms. Shawn and Gus stared wide eyed at each other, before doing what everyone else did, and ran towards the back room to see what was happening.

It seemed everyone in the reception hall had crammed into the back room, and when Shawn got there, he had trouble peering over people's shoulders. Random gasps of surprise invaded his ear drums as he stood on his tippy toes trying to get a glimpse of the scene.

"Oh my god.."

"What happened?"

"The bride?"

"and on her wedding day..."

"Shawn." Gus called finally, "What's happening."

Shawn could only guess from what he heard, he signalled to Gus that he would be two seconds, and he started pushing his way through people to get to the front of the crowd. When he got there, the scene he came too was pretty gruesome. The bride lay at the end of the room, with a knife still sticking out of her throat. Shawn winced a bit, but went right back to doing what he needed to do and started taking in the details around her body.

"Shawn." Gus' voice sounded beside him, he had taken Shawn's lead and had pushed his way to the front. "Shawn what -...oh..."

"This is your fault." Shawn hissed a bit at Gus.

"My fault?" Gus went on the defensive.

"Yeah." Shawn countered. "You jinxed us you jinxer, because now we have a reason to stay."

Gus rolled his eyes, and had to turn away, the scene was just a little too bloody, and it was needless to say he hadn't grown as accustomed to dead bodies as Shawn had.

Shawn finished taking in what he could, and decided to speak up then, people were still crowding the room to get a look – neither of them being the groom, another detail Shawn noticed right away.

"OKAY!" Shawn stepped away from everybody and turned to face them, he regarded Gus with a nod, and saw that Marcus and Randall were also nowhere to be seen – awesome. Shawn kept talking. "If I could just have everyone's attention please! Yes, you ma'am in that hideous fur jacket, I mean you too- stop moving."

The crowd kept whispering.

Shawn gave an exasperated sigh, and brought his hands to his mouth whistling loudly. "LISTEN UP!" Shawn shouted. "My name is Shawn Spencer, and I work with the SBPD, we have a murder case on our hands. So I'm asking everyone to PLEASE go back to the main hall, have a seat, and remain CALM my partner Gus and I are going to call the police if they haven't been called already, and I'm sure they're going to want to talk to every single of one of us!"

"The police have already been called."

That annoying voice of course belonged to Randall. Shawn turned and saw that he and Marcus had just come in from the side. "Perfect." Shawn forced himself to say. "Then they'll get here soon enough, and we can get to work."

"They'll get to work." Randall corrected. "You're not doing anything."

"I work with the police department." Shawn said. "That's up for them to decide."

"You do?" Randall's tone was a little mocking. "Funny -I work FOR the police department, and I've never met you before in my life." With that Randall reached into his pocket pulling out a badge. It wasn't SBPD though – it was Coral Haven's logo on the ID card, Randall's picture looking stoic next to his full title Dt. Randall Peters. "Investigation will start, just as soon as my backup arrives, but thank you Mr. Spencer, for moving the main crowd back to the reception area. I'll be sure to mention you briefly in my final report."

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Shawn couldn't hide his surprise and his immediate distaste for the situation. He looked right at Marcus who looked a little guilty – like he should've given Shawn warning. Marcus idly rubbed the back of his head, and looked away.


	2. Officer Jenny

**A/N: **So I won't be updating this one as frequently as the last one. Reason? It's officially the holiday season and I work in a mall. *Dies.* None the less. I will try my best. Promise!

Reviews are welcome!

Cheers!

~Matilda

**Other than the Dead Bride(Officer Jenny)**

When the CHPD got there, Shawn was actually more than happy to give them the floor. He sat with Gus back with everyone else in the main room waiting for the police to come and take their statements. While they waited, Shawn out of habit kept looking around the reception hall. There were currently no clues in the main area that might point to anything – but it wasn't like Shawn cared.

"You're quiet." Gus' voice broke through Shawn's train of thought.

"Tired." Shawn told half the truth.

They watched as unfamiliar police uniforms made their way through the room, talking to each guest. Every guest looked shocked but none the less no one seemed to have any trouble talking with police.

"It has been a few hours now." Gus pointed out. "We were supposed to be back in Santa Barbara by now."

Shawn laughed a bit. "Lassie's probably wondering where I am."

"Call him and tell him?" Gus asked, as he said that he noted that a police officer looked at them, giving another warning stare. Shawn made a 'pfft' sound in response.

"Something tells me the police here won't really like that. This case is – and I can't believe I'm saying this 'out of my jurisdiction.' We'll just wait it out."

Gus raised a brow, that didn't sound like Shawn. "Since when has that ever stopped you?" Gus said. "Especially when there's a murderer potentially in the room?"

"Since the detective on the scene is Marcus' new and annoying fiancé." Shawn admitted. "His first impression was just mean, thus he can do it himself."

"Right." Gus only really half agreed. "We're still telling Lassiter about this later, right?"

"Face to face." Shawn noted with a bit of a grin. "I'll go to his place later and be all 'hey baby' then he'll do that thing where his lip puffs a bit when he's worried and go 'you were supposed to be here hours ago, where were you Spencer?' then I'll be all 'Oh baby it was terrible, first I ran into Marcus and he made me feel all uncomfortable and stuff, then I totally grabbed Gus and we were gonna book it, but then there was a scream – '_AHHH'! _ Like that, and everybody ran to the backroom to see what was up? And you know what was up? The bride got shanked. In the throat, that's what's up."

"How is a woman getting stabbed on her wedding day funny?" Gus failed to see the humour, Shawn however just shrugged.

"Not necessarily funny, but Lassie's reaction is going to be priceless." Shawn made himself comfortable in his chair then, and started twiddling his thumbs. Before he could really say anything else a police officer approached their table.

"Have you two been questioned yet?" The officer was a younger female, if she had a figure it was very well hidden under her uniform and her frizzy brown hair and white hazel eyes made her look much younger then she actually was.

"Not yet." Gus said. "We're ready now though if you like."

"Oh yes please." The officer sounded sickly sweet, and her smile made her look even younger. Shawn and Gus exchanged a look over to the table – what? Was this girl like 12 or something?

"Uh okay." Shawn started slowly. "What would you like to know?"

"Where were at the time of the stabbing?" The officer asked.

"The bar." Shawn answered. "My friend Gus here had just finished talking to the bride's maid Nora. We were going to get our coats when we heard a scream. Like everyone else, we went to the back room to see what had happened."

"Okay." The officer was writing Shawn's statement down, as she wrote, she repeated little bits of Shawn's statement to herself. "Gus huh? Sounds kind of familiar."

"I guess it's a common name." Gus offered.

"Right." The officer said. "So, the bride's maid Nora you said her name was? When she left you, what direction did she go in?"

Gus had to think about that one. "Well, after Shawn interrupted our conversation, she made her way towards the bathroom."

"Okay." The officer went to write that down, but before she finished writing, something seemed to dawn on her; those wide clear eyes of hers got even wider and started to sparkle like she had just met an angel. "Wait? Shawn and Gus? As in Shawn Spencer and Burton Guster?"

"...Yeah." Shawn said slowly. "That would be us."

"OH MY GOD!" Suddenly the officer got extremely excited. "You guys are like – my heroes!"

Gus quirked a single brow and Shawn couldn't help but give a small modest smile. "Oh yeah?" Shawn asked.

"Yeah!" She said. "I've been reading up on your cases for more than 5 years now! You guys are the reason I became a cop!"

"Well!" Shawn's face brightened a bit. "That's great! Officer...?"

"Oh Jenny." The officer said and she extended her hand to Shawn in greeting. "I'm Officer Jenny."

Shawn shook the girl's hand politely, and he looked to Gus who surprisingly was holding back a laugh.

"Officer – Jenny?" Gus asked to confirm, he had a small grin on his face that almost matched Shawn's 'shit eating grin'. At that grin Shawn felt a little twinge of pride for his friend, because even though Shawn was more the trouble maker, Gus had his small moments too. However Shawn had no current idea as to why Gus was suddenly trying not to laugh. Officer Jenny on the other hand seemed to know right away and she got defensive.

"I don't care if you're one of my idols Mr. Guster!" Officer Jenny snapped a bit. "But I swear to GOD, if you're even thinking about a Pokemon joke, I will find a reason to throw you in a holding cell over night!"

Suddenly; Shawn understood, and he coughed to cover up his own laugh. Officer Jenny didn't seem to notice however, and she seemed to get another idea.

"Oh my god!" Officer Jenny said suddenly. "This is a pretty gruesome case we have starting, Shawn you and Gus should totally come aboard! You know? Because you were here when it happened? Maybe you can get some vibes? Feel around the room? Talk to some of the people?"

"Oh..." Shawn seethed a bit. "Look, Officer Jenny. I would love to – really, but Detective Peterson already made it clear that my assistance wasn't needed. Though even if it was, Gus and I – we've grown over the years, and by grown I mean we've become pretty Santa Barbara exclusive. We hope you understand."

There was a split second where Officer Jenny looked crushed. "Well..." She said. "I guess I understand, but technically this reception hall is between Santa Barbara _and_ Coral Haven. SBPC _COULD_ potentially interfere if they saw fit...Hmm... How's this, why don't I call my Chief? And if he gives the okay, you'll reconsider?"

Officer Jenny's youthful expressions made it really difficult for Shawn to say no, however he was sure that the Chief of the CHPD would say no. He hoped. "Yeah..." Shawn started. "I – guess."

"Say what now?" Gus snapped to attention. "Shawn – what?"

"Great!" Officer Jenny said. "I'm going to call my chief as soon as I can!"

"Officer Jenny!" Randall's voice sounded over the hall. "Back to work please!"

"Right!" Officer Jenny gave the two a bit of an apologetic look before running off to carry on her questioning. As soon as she was gone, Gus was on Shawn.

"Why did you say yes?" Gus demanded. "Two minutes ago, you were saying everything BUT yes."

"Relax." Shawn said in a hushed tone. "Look at her Gus, she's a young, energetic rookie, there's nothing WRONG with that, but based on her age, I'm willing to bet she hasn't been in the game too long. I highly doubt she's in any position to convince her Chief of anything. We're going home tonight and staying home, I promise."

"You better be right Shawn." Gus warned. "Off chance you do get hired, we'll be working with that Randall guy. He already has something against you, it's obvious. I mean, he is the reason you were willing to back down."

"Still the reason." Shawn said. "When I called for attention in the back room I thought I would be the one investigating until our guys showed up, but then he waltzed in all CHPD, I'm cool with dropping this one."

"Right." Gus leaned forward putting his elbows on the table. "I'm still worried about Officer Jenny though."

"Bah." Shawn said. "I'm not worried. We're not getting hired."

Gus still wasn't sure, and like the rest of the guests he was becoming restless. "I'm going to find another officer, find out how much longer we have to stay."

"Alright." Shawn said, and he whipped out his phone.

"Calling Lassiter?" Gus asked.

"Dad." Shawn replied. "I was supposed to have breakfast with him, but I think when this is over I just want to go to Lassie's and curl up, hopefully he understands."

"Alright." Gus said, and as he left, Shawn dialled for his dad. Henry answered on the fourth ring, he sounded groggy, and grumpy.

"Shawn it's past midnight." Henry half grumbled.

"I know." Shawn said. "But something came up; I'm calling to tell you, I can't make breakfast tomorrow."

"What!" Henry suddenly sounded agitated. "Are you kidding me? You're cancelling again! What is it this time?"

"Uh." Shawn stopped for a second. "How many cancellations is this now?"

"This is your third Shawn." Henry said. "Your first excuse was, you had a cold and didn't want to give your 'papa bear' the sniffles." Shawn grinned – yeah he totally did say that. "The second time you cancelled." Henry continued. "There was a Saved by the Bell marathon on television you just couldn't miss."

"I said and did both of those things." Shawn confessed.

"So." Henry said. "What is it this time, alien abduction? Robot invasion? Different Strokes marathon?"

"Neither – sadly." Shawn said. "Aw man...A Different Strokes marathon would be amazing...I wonder if I can find the DVDs..."

"Shawn!" Henry snapped. "Excuse?"

"Right!" Shawn was back on track. "You remember that wedding Gus and I went too this morning?"

"Yeah?" Henry asked slowly.

"Well, someone kind of ...murdered the bride."

"What?" Henry suddenly sounded surprised.

"Yeeeeahhh." Shawn did his 'office space' impression. "Sooo Gus and I are sitting with a bunch of other wedding guests, we just got questioned by police; we're hoping we can leave soon."

"Leave? You're joking." Henry said again. "Why aren't you working it?"

"It's out of Santa Barbara." Shawn tried. "It was the Coral Haven police force that called. They don't want me on."

"Uh huh." Henry sounded stoic. "So a bride is dead, and you're just going to – walk away?"

"Dad!" Shawn said. "Police are on it, it just isn't our guys, and it'll be fine. I'm sure her case is in capable hands."

"Spencer!"

Randall's voice sounded off, and Shawn looked up to see the detective making a bee line straight for him.

"Got to go dad." Shawn hung up as Randall reached his table.

"Why the hell are you on the phone?" Randall didn't sound pleased at all.

"No reason." Shawn said simply. "Just talking to a friend quick."

"You better not have said anything about the murder." Randall warned. "I take my work very seriously Spencer, I will NOT have one idiot get away with calling press. Got it?"

Shawn had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. "You really think me? Of all people would call press? You obviously don't know me very well."

"I know enough." Randall's voice dropped, and it seemed the conversation was about to end, but then suddenly Randall sighed. "Chief Anderson just called me."

"Who?" Shawn blinked.

"My police chief." Randall droned. "One of the rookies gave him a call, and I bet I know which one too. It seems, you're to be given the opportunity to work with us."

At that Shawn frowned.

_God dammit Officer Jenny._

"Look, with all due respect." Shawn started.

"HA!" Randall cut him off. "Respect indeed, but go on."

"As. I. Was. Saying." Shawn re-started slowly. "I don't think, this is a job for me. I don't know any of your uniforms. I doubt any of them are willing to co-operate with my...methods..."

"Hu huh." Randall gritted his teeth a bit. "You're difficult."

"It's part of my charm." Shawn sounded a bit pleased with himself; he could tell Randall was having just as hard a time as Shawn was talking business. Considering he already decided he hated Shawn way before he got to know him.

"Could've fooled me." Randall grumbled. "Look Spencer, if you say no, I don't give a shit, honestly, I really don't. However, I am obligated to tell you before you make your decision, that Chief Anderson is willing to pay you and your partner $3000."

"Three thousand?..." Shawn barely believed it.

"Dollars." Randall said.

"Me...and Gus?"

"Each." Randall confirmed.

Suddenly, Shawn reverted back to his old way of thinking. He was getting the chance to make a detective look like a complete idiot AND get paid for it? Hmm...

"We'll take the case!"

It was Gus who made the announcement as he came up next to Shawn and Randall. He must've heard the part about the $3000.

"Gus!" Shawn breathed. "You totally stole my moment!"

"You get moments all the time." Gus defended. "That time. It was my turn."

"Randall here."

"Detective Peterson." Randall corrected.

"Randy here, was talking to _me_ Gus, I was totally about to say yes to the money, then you jumped in all Harvey birdman on me!"

"You're not allowed to make that reference Shawn!" Gus said. "Harvey Birdman is a cartoon I watch. Not you."

"They had the Jetson's in one episode." Shawn said. "It was hilarious!"

"Enough!" Randall hollered a bit. "You two were just hired by the CHPD. Great. Fantastic. Now how about you get into the back room and do your job before I convince my Chief to fire you?"

"No need Randy." Shawn's mood had suddenly shifted again to be a little more serious. "I can see it already." He then gestured to his temple to remind the detective he was psychic. "Don't believe me, ask a question."

"Oh." Randall laughed as if it was a challenge. "Okay then." He then pulled out a notepad. "I have here everything written about the crime scene. Let's see how good you really are Spencer."

"Okay." Shawn's face cracked into a grin. It was true he still didn't want to work with this police team – more specifically Randall, but at this point Randall was just asking for it.

"Position of the bride's body." Randall asked.

"Too easy." Shawn said. "Gus and I saw the body with everyone else, on the ground, leaning more to her left side, head turned 45 degrees towards the back wall, right arm draped over chest, steak knife sticking out her neck."

Randall looked at his notes, and Shawn could tell he was suppressing a groan. "Fair enough." Randall grumbled. "Next question, what was missing off the bride's person?"

"A little better." Shawn said, though he already knew the answer. "Wedding ring, and the bracelet she had on during the ceremony, but the bracelet was obvious, everyone could see it from a mile away, but the ring was a little more modest."

Randall huffed a bit. "Not. Bad."

"I do my best." Shawn said. "As much fun as all this is, have we gotten a location on the groom yet?"

"What?" Randall blinked.

"The groom, he's not here. He hasn't been here. Didn't you know that? I don't want to tell you to do your job, detective, but in my experience, not here either means he's a suspect, or another body shoved in a closet somewhere."

Randall's face darkened a bit. "You better be wrong."

"Whoa what?" Shawn said. "I'm just telling you what I know."

"On a less professional level." Randall said. "The groom is a friend of Marcus' and you saying he could be stuffed in a closet? Is a little too detailed for my taste. I'm having my guys go on a closet search as soon as we're done here. If I find the groom anything less than alive – I'm getting you off this case and throwing the book at you Spencer. Got it?"

"Hey. Detective. If that's what you are. Why don't you stop interrogating the hired help, put on a pair of dancing shoes that fit better and get back to doing your job? You're wasting field hours, and if I wanted too I could call up your Chief and have you cited."

Randall froze in place, being talked to like that? Really pissed him off. He turned to face who it was that spoke to him in such a manner. As he turned he didn't notice, that Shawn's facial expression went from stoic to absolute glee. "The hell do you think you are?" Demanded Randall to the newcomer.

Lassiter pulled out his badge. "Detective Carlton Lassiter, SBPD -and you are?"

"Detective Randall Peterson, CHPD." Randall answered. "May I ask -why the SBPD suddenly have the need to be here?"

"Chief Anderson gave me a call." Lassiter said. "Told me, that my psychic had just been hired, and that if I saw fit to come assist him in any way I could. Problem?"

Randall bit down a bit on his tongue. "I'm done here. Do what you need to do at the crime scene, and then get the hell out. Meet back at the station in Coral Haven first thing in the morning. That's an order Spencer." Randall left.

"Aww poor Randy doesn't know yet I don't take orders." Shawn sounded like he was cooing a child; he then looked to Lassiter who still looked agitated. "I can't believe you're here."

"Your dad called me." Lassiter said. "Told me about the murder."

"Wait." Gus chimed in. "You lied to Detective Peterson?"

"Not entirely." Lassiter said. "I called Chief Anderson to make sure I could actually get into the scene. Surprisingly, easier than I thought it would be."

"You were worried about me." Shawn teased.

"Not worried." Lassiter insisted. "I knew you were alright, but it was getting late, and I figured if you weren't going to be working the case like your dad said, I could at least pull some strings to get you and Gus out of here. Of course now that I'm here, you're suddenly on the case. What happened?"

"Oh you know." Gus said. "It seemed fun, something a little different, and Shawn and I got offered three pretty pennies."

"Each." Shawn said. "That and Randy over there, seems to have a hate on for me bad. My original plan was to get on the case and call you, but then he jumped in all 'im a detective, get the hell off my crime scene.' Which with his attitude? I was way too happy to oblige. But! Due to my luck – there's a tiny squirrel like rookie hanging around here somewhere. She's the one who called Chief Anderson and got Gus and I hired."

"Well." Lassiter said. "The CHPD isn't bad, they're yearly reports are pretty impressive so it shouldn't be a _horrible_ experience. Still -I just hope you don't have to spend too much time away from home."

"It'll be a piece of cake." Shawn promised.

"Yeah." Gus was encouraging. "We got this."

The two friends fist bumped, and Lassiter felt a little better. He wanted to ask Shawn to take him to the crime scene so he could take a look himself, but first he wanted Shawn alone.

"Shawn can we go somewhere private for a second?"

"Kissy face?" Shawn asked excitedly, Lassiter blushed.

"Not so loud Spencer."

Gus shook his head. "You two go make kissy face; I'm going around and getting a few names before we leave."

Shawn happily grabbed the sleeve of Lassiter's shirt, and guided him to another back room, this one was vacant of a dead body – thankfully and Shawn pushed the door closed with the back of his foot.

"You're on the clock." Lassiter reminded Shawn a bit playfully. "You should be out there with Gus."

"And if Jules had shown up instead of you, I would've happily set to work while Gus went to make kissy face with her."

"We're in a building filled with a completely different police squad. If we get caught, my reputation among the force will be tarnished, even though I'm not technically working right now."

"Hu huh." Shawn winked and easily stepped to the detective wrapping his arms around Lassiter's neck. "Why not tarnish it a little then Lassie? Then when I solve the case before any of them, I can say it was all because of the best detective in the world. Police squads all over the country- no – the WORLD will then be more than willing to bend the rules for you."

"Ha! Not likely Shawn." Still even as he spoke Lassiter's arms found their way around Shawn's back holding him in place. "We'll just have to not get caught." A shadow of a grin reached Lassiter's features, and Shawn closed the gap between them, stealing Lassiter for a kiss.

Lassiter kissed back, and he easily fell into a warm and familiar routine. His eyes slid closed and he pulled Shawn closer to him, moulding them together perfectly. The feeling he got whenever they kissed like this never got boring, stars always exploded behind the detectives eyes, his toes curled and he felt like he was safe at home and flying through space all at once.

On Shawn's end, the feeling was mutual. Their kiss deepened and Shawn's chest felt like it was swelling to the point of bursting wide open. He was on a mountain, singing loudly and obnoxiously, whilst doing somersaults in heaven.

Eventually though they had to break apart, but only when they both couldn't take it anymore. Both men stared at each other catching their breaths, matching smiles touching their faces.

"Too bad I'm working." Shawn said a little teasingly. "Or else there'd be nothing stopping me from going home with you right now."

"God you're corny." Lassiter's voice was low, and even though his response wasn't as eloquent as most spouses would've liked, Shawn understood and he responded by kissing Lassiter's cheek. "I'm going to make sure Gus is okay, the crime scene is in the very back room, you can look now, or wait for me."

"I'll look now; give you and Gus a chance to cover more ground...Meet by the front entrance in half n hour?"

"Sounds good." Shawn agreed, and he stepped away opening the door. "See you in half Lassie." Shawn left the tiny room going to find Gus.

Lassiter sighed. He could only admit to himself that he was in no doubt in love with Shawn more than anything, inwardly he cursed. _God you're corny? _What was he thinking! Lassiter shook his head and grabbed for the door.

Later. Lassiter could have Shawn to himself later. Right now Shawn was on a case, and even though Lassiter technically wasn't there to help, Detective Peterson thought he was so Lassiter figured he might as well go ahead and do something, and support Shawn along the way. That was it. Nothing more. Lassiter smiled to himself as he left the little room. It was fine. Everything was alright...Other than the dead bride of course.

"Detective Lassiter? What are you doing here?"

Lassiter's head snapped right up, and he looked to Marcus who was coming out of a washroom. Lassiter blinked. Then blinked again. Logic? Gone! "Are you kidding me Tuly? !"

Suddenly, Lassiter's stomach dropped, and he wasn't so sure if everything was as alright as it seemed...Other than that dead bride of course.


	3. A Night in Coral Haven

**A/N: **Chapter 3 is finally here, hooray! I did it! I did it! Before you read though, please note that this fic has a little more Shassie content then my normal quota. By that I mean, there's going to be a lot more kissing, and a lot more adult suggestive scenes. (Whether or not I cross the line into erotica will depend on how brave I feel going against site rules.) So for now, just be warned. This chapter has heavy petting.

Enjoy!

~Matilda.

**A Night in Coral Haven**

After Lassiter had hollered, Marcus and Lassiter stared at each other for a good moment before Marcus cleared his throat.

"So uh...What...are you doing here? Were you Shawn's date? I could've sworn he brought Gus."

"That's, none of your business really." Lassiter responded. "More importantly – what are you doing here?"

"Creeping on your boyfriend." Marcus lied – he watched as Lassiter's face attempted to twist into something beyond human.

"Excuse me?" Lassiter quipped. "What the hell kind of reason is that? !"

"Relax detective." Marcus urged. "I was joking. I came with Randall; I'm a friend of the grooms, or at least I was. No one's seen him since before the murder."

"Of course they haven't." Lassiter's tone was a bit sarcastic, in his mind that was all too basic. Even though he hated Marcus he easily slipped into work mode and pressed on. "So where was the last place you saw him?"

"At the door." Marcus answered. "Randall and I didn't make the wedding due to traffic, we got to the reception hall, and Dave-"

"Dave?"

"The name of the groom, Dave Kensington, he and Renee-"

"Renee?"

"The deceased. Renee Claire – or at that point, Renee Claire'Kensington. They were greeting people at the door when we came in. We walked away, did some dancing, some light eating, scream sounded off from the back. People crowded, here we are."

"No idea where Dave could've run off to?" Lassiter asked.

"None what so ever." Marcus said.

"Any idea who might know?" Lassiter prodded a bit.

"Maybe some of the groomsmen." Marcus tried. "They're the ones in the pink ties."

"Thanks for that." Lassiter looked around and noted the colour scheme of the hall. "Never would've guessed."

Lassiter walked away, still kind of fuming that Marcus of all people had to be there – and had come with that other detective. Awesome. Regardless, Lassiter still wanted a look at the crime scene. He had to show his badge to a uniform still at the door, but it was enough that he got in.

It was like something out of a bad dream really, the bride looked so – gorgeous and ugly all at once. Lassiter actually felt his heart go out to her, just a little bit, but what really got him was how she died. She had died via stab to the throat – just like Derek Atkinson, two near identical murders, with Shawn and his ex right in the middle of it – Lassiter's jaw clenched. So not cool. Remembering what happened to Shawn 10 months ago, made it especially hard for the detective not to stomp out there and drag Shawn home.

Half an hour later, Lassiter met Shawn and Gus at the door and they were ready to go, they noted that other guests were being permitted to leave as well.

"We should just check into a motel." Shawn yawned loudly. "It's like what - 4AM at this point? We have to be at the station in Coral Haven for 9? I don't think the drive back is worth it."

"I don't even think there's a motel around here." Gus mentioned. "I don't think we have a choice."

"Why don't we spend the night in Coral Haven?" Shawn suggested. "It's a little closer than Santa Barbara, and I'm sure there's bound to be a motel or two somewhere."

"Well, I would rather make the drive back to my own bed." Gus announced. "So long as I get a little sleep and some of my own coffee, I will be okay and I will see you tomorrow – I assume you're riding with Lassiter?"

"If it's not too much trouble." Shawn yawned again. "Drive safe."

"Will do; text me when you check in."

"Text me when you get home."

They agreed, and the three split up, walking to separate cars. Lassiter turned to face Shawn who did look pretty tired, he figured now would be a good time to talk about the groom. "You know the groom wasn't anywhere to be found?"

"I know." Shawn said. "One of the first things I felt actually. I don't think we're going to find him any time soon, unfortunately."

"No?"

"Well he wasn't found dead in a closet." Shawn said. "Which means he either split, or got taken, either way, we have a murder and an MIA on our hands. It's going to be fun."

"You're joking right?"

"Maybe -but then again maybe not." Shawn said. "Ask me again tomorrow." He gave a tired grin when they reached Lassiter's car, and before Shawn got in he gave Lassiter a soft kiss.

Lassiter kissed back, and he could tell by how lazy Shawn's lips were just how tired the psychic was. He wrapped his arms around the shorter man for a second. "You'll be okay tomorrow?"

"Fine." Shawn promised. "Just whisk me away Lassie."

Lassiter nodded and opened the car door for Shawn, an action that Shawn took notice too.

"Aww Lassiefrass is such a gentlemen."

Lassiter blushed. "Yeah, yeah."

Shawn chuckled as Lassiter made it his side of the car and got in, making the drive into Coral Haven.

The hotel they found was small, but it had vacancies and was relatively close to the police station, so Shawn announced it would do for the night. The hostess behind the desk was elderly and her skin sickly pale. Still, she seemed to hold her own and when Shawn and Lassiter came in, she barely held in her distaste.

"You boys checking in together?"

"That we are ma'am." Shawn smiled politely. The hostess huffed a bit.

"In my day, if men wanted to share a room, they did it during the day, while their wives thought they were at work, they missed good work hours, but they were still able to uphold _normal _households. They were good days. Now? Well, here you two boys are, checking in the middle of the night, no regard for a wife and kids."

Shawn chuckled in spite of the old ladies judgemental tendencies, not because it didn't offend him, but because Shawn had previously dealt with much – much worse. "Oh not to worry, I wouldn't dare soil a good woman's name. Not with my favourite pastimes, the women and children of the world are safe from me."

The old woman actually laughed, and lit up. "Oh, well, you're just a delight!"

"I try." Shawn offered.

Lassiter cleared his throat a bit. "Sorry to interrupt – but could we? Get that room now, please?"

"Oh." The hostess looked a bit apologetic and made do with giving Shawn and Lassiter each a room key. She then looked right at Lassiter. "You're older than your friend."

"By a few years." Lassiter admitted.

The hostess then looked between Lassiter and Shawn, before looking right back at Lassiter. "Now, your little friend here, doesn't seem to mind having picked up your lifestyle – but I hope he doesn't develop your eating habits, my word boy, you're so thin!"

"Uh...thanks?" Lassiter tried.

The hostess continued, and she even leaned over the counter to pinch at Shawn's cheek still talking to Lassiter. "Look at this poor boy, short! You're lucky you're tall, you can get away with being thin, but if this one starts losing weight, they'll be none of him left!"

Shawn cracked a grin and looked to Lassiter who had clenched his jaw. "Not too worry ma'am. I promise he won't starve."

"Yes." Shawn agreed. "Why – it was just the other day, he fed me more than a mouthful, I was quite satisfied." Shawn gave a wink. The hostess missed it completely, but Lassiter's face was practically a tomato at that point.

"Let's go Spencer." Lassiter made haste and clamped his hand onto Shawn's shoulder practically dragging him to the elevator.

"Nice meeting you!" Shawn on the way to the elevator waved at the little old lady. The two made it to the elevator, and the doors closed behind them. Lassiter was still a bit mortified but Shawn seemed more than alright.

"She was sweet, a little homophobic -but so nice about it."

"Hell." Lassiter quipped. "You're going straight to hell for that one."

"Oh." Shawn said with another yawn. "As long as the ride is fun."

The elevator chimed and Lassiter and Shawn were on their floor, after a few short turns of a hall way they found their room and upon opening the door, Shawn was the first one on the bed, landing on it in a heap.

"Checking into this room was the best idea EVER." Shawn said. "Get a few hours sleep, go to police station, piss off Randy cop. It's going to be a good day tomorrow."

"Randy cop?" Lassiter asked with a quirked brow, even though the room had two beds, he easily plopped himself next to Shawn who was curling up.

"Detective Peterson." Shawn said in a low voice. "I now call him Randy cop, because his name is Randall, and he has little to none of my respect."

"Huh." Lassiter said. "Isn't that why you started calling me Lassie?"

Shawn gave a curt. "Ha!" Before clearing his throat. "Sorry, that was a little funny to me, I've never actually heard you use your nick name before, it came as a pleasant surprise." He turned his head and smiled up at Lassiter – who surprisingly grinned in return.

"Well isn't it?" Lassiter pressed a bit.

"Nah." Shawn answered sitting up. "I call you Lassie because well -you're Lassie. Even before I really knew you, you were Lassie. The over worked detective who easily got flustered, but he was always there to hand cuff the bad guys. All heroic and stuff, like the dog, but sexier, and not a dog."

"I know all about the dog." Lassiter said. "Though to be honest, it wasn't the dog show I watched."

"No?" Shawn asked. "I loved Lassie re-runs on TV when I was a kid – what was your dog show?"

"It wasn't really my show." Lassiter insisted. "It just seemed to always be on when I was home, but I had a guilty pleasure for The Littlest Hobo."

"That is awesome!" Shawn said. "I remember that show too. Man, I miss old TV."

"Since we're on the subject." Lassiter said. "Random question, for you."

"I like Random – go." Shawn smiled again; he didn't feel as tired anymore.

"Old sitcoms." Lassiter started. "Night Court, or Newheart?"

"Oh...tough call." Shawn admitted. "It depends really, is this Bob Newheart the Inn owner or Bob Newheart the therapist?"

"I'll go with the therapist." Lassiter said. "It came out first, and the inn saga copped out by going back to the therapist series in the end anyhow."

"Night Court then." Shawn said. "It was funny."

"I liked Night Court too."

Shawn smiled, and gave another small yawn. "This conversation is fun." Shawn admitted. "But I have to be up and out before 9 and it's already 5."

"Good point, okay, we're done, we can sleep now."

"Good night Lassie."

"Good night Spencer."

Lassiter leaned over and gave Shawn a soft kiss, Shawn kissed back, and the kiss lingered. Shawn brought a hand up to gently caress the side of Lassiter's face. On instinct, Lassiter's hand rested on Shawn's side. Shawn had sensitive sides, as soon as Lassiter placed his hand there; Shawn was deepening the kiss and moving to be closer to the detective.

Lassiter obliged, by pulling Shawn a little further under him, movement seemed to take over logic, Lassiter's tongue gently prodded at Shawn's bottom lip begging entrance.

Shawn brought his arms up further to wrap around the back of Lassiter's neck, his mouth opened and the first touch of Lassiter's tongue against his own made him keen a bit, he adjusted himself, pulling Lassiter completely on top of him, wrapping his legs securely around Lassiter's waist.

Lassiter lowered himself, until his and Shawn's body were pressed together; chest to chest. The kisses between them were slowly turning into liquid fire. At first the build up of desire used to start from the pit of his stomach, but as time went on being with Shawn had become less of a bodily experience and more a whole moment that needed to be savoured. Lassiter's heart started to swell, any negative emotion he had was currently shifting for the better, and the only thing that mattered to him was the man holding onto him; moaning for him softly and pressing their mouths together like a missing puzzle piece. Lassiter was convinced he would never get tired of this feeling.

The kiss had to end though; Shawn could only hold his breath for so long. Their lips parted, and Shawn could feel that his bottom lip was a bit swollen, and probably pink. He looked up at Lassiter and melted at the way the detective was looking at him, he loved that look.

"You need to be sleeping." Lassiter finally said.

"Five more minutes." Shawn argued, he nearly pouted.

"You. Are a 12 year old boy." Lassiter insisted.

"Say that a little louder." Shawn joked. "I don't think the rest of the hotel heard you, and you're supposed to be the cop."

"God you're gross." Lassiter grumbled a bit, and yet he couldn't pull himself off the other man. Shawn grinned and his response to that sentence was to lift his head up, attaching his lips to the spot on Lassiter's neck right under his ear. Shawn's hips arched up, brushing Lassiter's pelvis. Whatever they were talking about – Lassiter forgot, he was reduced to a low possessive growl. Lassiter's hands found their way under Shawn's shirt, rough hands caressed soft sides.

Shawn's responsive moan was a bit high pitched, it was weird, he was never much for animal noises, but when Lassiter growled, Shawn became completely compliant. He fell further into the mattress, and Lassiter's hands kept stroking his sides. Shawn's arms lifted over his head, and Lassiter took that as cue, lifting the fabric of Shawn's shirt off completely and tossing it carelessly to the side. Cold air made Shawn jump a bit, but that movement only brought him back to Lassiter's chest which was warm and heaving. His hands came up wedging between their bodies, and he started unbuttoning Lassiter's shirt, working his way around the tie.

Shirt and tie fell to the floor, and the desire to get Shawn completely naked was almost too much for the detective. However, little shreds of logic started filtering their way into the detectives mind, and even though Shawn was happily occupying himself with kissing down Lassiter's chest, Lassiter had to bring a stop to this. They didn't have protection, it was late, Shawn had work.

"Shawn." Lassiter tried.

"Hmm?" Shawn answered slowly.

"Time for bed." Lassiter said – though even he didn't sound entirely convinced.

Shawn very reluctantly untangled himself from the detective – pouting all the way. "If you say so."

"I do." Lassiter said. "Trust me, under different circumstances there'd be nothing stopping me from taking full advantage you." Lassiter said it like it was a promise for the next time.

"Mmm." Shawn said. "Can't wait for that." He moved, letting Lassiter lay on his back next to him. Shawn curled himself into the crook of the detectives arm. He yawned again, more tired than he remembered being a few minutes ago. Lassiter laid a soft kiss onto Shawn's temple; Shawn closed his eyes practically purring. "Good night Lassie." He mumbled.

"Good night Shawn." Lassiter mumbled. The two fell asleep.

Getting to the Coral Haven police station on time was a battle and a half. Lassiter had woken up first, pretty used to periods of only getting short spurts of sleep due to work. Shawn however was not.

"Shawn." Lassiter shook the psychic; Shawn mumbled something along the lines 'never.' Before curling up into a tighter ball. Lassiter rolled his eyes. "Shawn." He shook him a little harder. Shawn whined.

"Lassie...why are you being so mean?"

"I'm not." Lassiter defended. "It's all in your imagination; now get up before I kick you."

Shawn despite being half asleep laughed a bit at that. "Alright you win." He tiredly rose up, Lassiter smirked and ruffled his hair making it look even messier then it already was.

"You need a haircut." Lassiter responded.

"Growing a mullet." Shawn announced, and he rolled off the bed grabbing his t-shirt and slipping it on. Lassiter made a face.

"Don't you dare." Lassiter even sounded a little offended. "I like your hair the way it is."

"Too bad." Shawn teased, "Now come on, coffee before work. Hop too Lassie."

"You're not growing a mullet." Lassiter grumbled, and he finished putting his own shirt on, grabbing his tie and heading for the door. "Shawn I'm putting my foot down."

"Ooo." Shawn said, and they exited the room heading down the hall. "I'm so scared of the hair police."

The couple bickered about mullets all the way to the elevator. Lassiter was missing Shawn's joking tone completely and couldn't believe he would do something so horrible to that pretty head of his, and Shawn was just happy he could actually get the detective to argue over mullets of all things.

They got to the police station, no earlier than 9:05.

It was odd; the police station in Coral Haven looked nothing like the one in Santa Barbara. Nice stone, and a few layers of coloured brick were replaced by chrome, chrome, and more chrome. "It's like a police station for robots." Shawn commented. "Where the hell are we supposed to go?"

In Santa Barbara, the chief's office was one of the first rooms you saw, but here? It was nothing but uniforms, and desks, an elevator at the end of the room.

"I'll ask." Lassiter said. He stepped away from the main entrance with Shawn at his heels.

"Shawn!"

That happy go lucky call came from Officer Jenny who rose up from a desk at the far left. Inwardly Shawn groaned, and Lassiter quirked a brow at the apparent 12 year old that came bounding over to them. "It's the rookie that got me on this case." Shawn said quietly for Lassiter's benefit. Lassiter understood.

"From far away she looks like a tiny McNab." Lassiter said quietly. Shawn coughed back the laugh that threatened to come out pretty loud.

"You're here!" Officer Jenny sounded so pleased. "I mean, of course you're here, Gus is here! I saw him, bright and early! That's seems so typical of him!"

"Heh. That's funny." Shawn said. "So uh – where exactly IS that Guster of mine?"

"Oh, the chief's floor." Officer Jenny said. "Just hit 3 when you go into the elevator."

"Thanks." Shawn said. "So, I'll see you around?"

"I hope so!" Officer Jenny stepped away from them then, and went back to her own desk – but not before she blatantly gave Lassiter the up-down.

"Did you see that?" Shawn said a little surprised when they got to the elevator. "She was checking you out Lassie."

"What? No she wasn't." Lassiter denied. "If anything, she was all over you."

"Best idea ever." Shawn said suddenly. "We kidnap her. Keep her as a dog, she has a certain golden retriever quality I find most endearing."

Lassiter was so caught up in what Shawn was saying that he didn't notice the elevator doors had opened. "You're not keeping the tiny cop as a pet Spencer."

"Not so loud Lassie." Shawn coughed and looked down stepping into the room. Lassiter looked up to see the faces of Gus, Chief Anderson, and Detective Peterson staring at him confused.

"The things you make me say." Lassiter grumbled quietly.

"Mr. Spencer I assume." Chief Anderson rose from his desk, and extended his hand. Shawn made a quick leap across the room and shook the older man's hand. Chief Anderson was about Henry's age, only he seemed to hold it together quite well. His suit looked more expensive than Lassie's car, and his hair was brushed back neatly, wise brown eyes stared at Shawn expectantly from under brief wrinkles.

"I would be." Shawn answered. "It's nice to meet you Chief."

"The feeling is mutual." Chief Anderson said, he then pulled his hand away and looked over at Lassiter. "I can only assume that this is your Santa Barbara detective?"

"Well, not mine personally..Atleast not in a professional manner – but personally...Er yes. Yes he is." Shawn joked. "This is detective Lassiter."

Lassiter wanted to roll his eyes, but refrained respectively, and came to join the others extending his hand to the Chief. "Yes, I am detective Lassiter."

As Lassiter introduced himself, Shawn leaned back and stood next to Gus whispering to him. "If Lassie asks – yes I'm growing a mullet, and not even my dad can stop me."

Gus pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't want to know." He mumbled. "It's not even noon, its way too early for this." Gus was not a well behaved morning person like everyone thought.

"What are you two talking about?" Randall cut in, and Shawn met his gaze with an innocent smile.

"I like your tie today Randy."

Randall frowned. "It's black."

"Yeah." Shawn said nonchalantly. "It suits you."

"Uh huh." Unlike Lassiter who would've been flustered by now, Randall just quirked a single brow. "I'd return the compliment, but you're wearing the same thing you were wearing at the reception yesterday. To which I have to ask - t-shirt to a wedding?"

"Suits make me crazy." Shawn shrugged.

"Enough." Chief Anderson broke in. "Mr. Spencer, do you have anything on this case?"

"Not aside from a missing groom." Shawn said. "But I will get more; I'm pretty good at what you do."

"I trust you are." Chief Anderson said. "However let me be clear? Psychics? Do not exist to me. I'm not hiring you because I believe in that crap, I'm hiring you because you're resume suggests you're the best consultant for the job. Succeed, and you will receive praise, and one more letter of reference that could gain you constant work. Fail and there will be consequences. I take this matter very seriously, you will act accordingly."

"Understood." Shawn said. If it wasn't for the way the Chief was staring him down, he would've whispered a comment to Gus about how ice cold the Chief was currently being. Before he could say much else, the elevator behind them chimed, and Officer Jenny came in looking a tad distressed.

"Chief Anderson." She said. "Sorry to interrupt, but it couldn't wait."

"What is it Officer Jenny?" No one but Shawn seemed to notice, but his voice softened just a little – however he let that tid bit of information go as Officer Jenny spoke.

"The dispatcher called in." Officer Jenny said. "There was another stabbing – connected to the Kensington murder last night, one of the bridesmaids was found dead."


	4. Jewellery

**A/N: **Holy crap on a cracker! It has been FOREVER since my last update. Like honestly – forever. Working in retail over the Christmas season did indeed take up that much of my time. Sleep and work being all I did these last few weeks. However the season is now passed and hopefully I can get back to posting on a regular basis. So – apologies for the delay, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and hopefully you all enjoy this next bit!

~Matilda.

**WARNING: SLIGHT ADULT SCENE AHEAD! **

**Jewellery**

Getting to the crime scene was an episode and a half. Randall had insisted that everyone jump into his car since it was 'his jurisdiction', Lassiter suggested everyone just drive in the car they all came to the station in, and Gus disagreed with Lassiter because he hadn't banked on a second murder and was only planning on getting gas for the drive back to Santa Barbara that night.

The result? Randall drove to the crime scene alone, and Shawn, Gus and Lassiter all got into Lassiter's car.

"We should've just gone with Randall." Gus mumbled.

"More fun this way." Shawn said he then turned his head to Lassite

"We're driving to a crime scene." Lassiter reminded Shawn. "The second one in 2 days."

"True." Shawn said. "Kind of puts a damper on the morning."

"Only kind of?" Gus sounded off from the back of the car.

"I've had worse days." Shawn replied a bit cheekily.

No one said anything else after that, and the three made it to the hotel just a couple minutes after Randall. When they pulled up both Shawn and Lassiter's face paled a bit and they exchanged a look. "This is where we stayed last night." Lassiter said lightly. "Fantastic."

"You think we were here when it happened?" Shawn asked, and Lassiter in true fashion just nodded.

"Of course I do."

"Must've been a quiet kill." Shawn suggested. "Everything was normal when we left, like no one had heard anything."

"Awesome." Gus piped in. "Well Randall's already in there, I suggest we get there too."

"Point." Shawn commended. The three exited the vehicle and followed a few uniforms in towards the crime scene.

Randall was already hard at work, taking pictures and telling a couple CSIs to dust for prints around the body. The body both Shawn and Gus recognized as Nora.

"Stabbed in the throat." Shawn mused.

"Just like the bride." Said Randall.

"And Derek Atkinson." Shawn finished.

Randall cocked a brow. "Who?"

"Long story." Shawn said. "When we're done here I'll fill you in."

Lassiter and Gus weren't really sure what to do at this point, so Lassiter hung back to see what exactly the uniforms were doing, and Gus walked up to join Shawn who stood in place looking over the body.

Like the bride, the knife was still sticking from Nora's throat, only instead of it being a carving knife from the kitchen; it was a smaller knife – a butter knife even.

She had time to change before her kill, rather than the gawdy dress she wore at the wedding; she was dressed from head to toe in pink fluffy pyjamas. They were hideous and Shawn nearly joked about her fashion sense dying with her – almost. However before he could say anything, a glimmer caught his eye.

Shawn could just see it – a silver speck tucked just under her sleeve. Shawn knew immediately what it was.

"Oh...oh no!" Shawn started his show. His arms started moving wilding, and his weight shuffled from foot to foot as he kicked and waved his arms towards Nora's body. "A clue! A clue! A shiny circle shaped clue! Her arms move her arms!"

As Shawn had his 'vision' Gus immediately played along knowing the drill all too well. Normally when Shawn kicked his feet around like that -it meant that he was going down. Gus grabbed the first chair he could and brought to Shawn, who fell into it with his hand pressed to his head like he was an exasperated model. He gave a weak sounding whimper.

That small sound alone was enough to have Lassiter practically jump to his side. He didn't exactly fawn over Shawn but he did lightly pat him on the shoulder before looking to Randall who was staring at Shawn like he honestly couldn't believe it. "Detective Peterson." Lassiter said promptly. "You're currently the only one wearing gloves."

Randall took that as cue and knelt by Nora's body lifting her arm. Nothing happened. For a second Randall looked a bit smug and was about to tell Shawn off before Shawn spoke up.

"She has two arms."

Randall held his tongue and took Nora's other arm lifting it slightly, as soon as he did there was a small thud as a ring rolled out from inside Nora's sleeve, and it continued rolling for a few seconds, only stopping right before Shawn's foot.

"That's the bride's wedding ring." Shawn said. "I'm positive."

Randall went over to Shawn and didn't say anything; he scooped the ring up and immediately stuck it in an evidence bag. He held it up for the others to see; Shawn stood up and glanced at it.

"That's definitely the ring."

"So the theory then." Randall said. "Nora killed Renee, stole the ring. Then someone broke into her room last night and killed her for revenge."

"Better theory!" Shawn cut in. "And this is based on the fact, I myself personally do not put on my pjs and wander around my bedroom holding jewellery in my sleeve. Nora DIDN'T kill Renee, and in fact met her end by the same murderer. The murderer who took the ring off Renee and planted it on Nora like a calling card."

"I like Shawn's theory better." Gus said. "Makes more sense."

"It sounded good to me." Lassiter said.

"Both your opinions are biased." Randall said. "You three have been working together far too long."

Shawn and Gus exchanged twin grins, while Lassiter had to keep from groaning – oh god it was true.

"I liked Shawn's theory better too!"

The person to chime up was one of the CSIs in the background. Randall almost face palmed. "Finish your job please!" Randall snapped a bit to the CSI who quickly went back to work, though to Shawn's delight he could just hear the CSI cackle lightly to himself.

"Okay." Randall kept talking over the CSIs offensive little laugh. "We agree with Shawn's theory."

"Good." Shawn said. "There's just one problem." Shawn held up his index finger like he was about to prove a point. "This is only the second murder."

"Only the second murder?" Randall quipped. "You're suddenly convinced there's going to be a third?"

"The ring." Shawn said. "If I'm right, and let's face it – I probably am right...like I'm 95.5...Wait no...Ninety SEVEN point five percent sure I am indeed right. Anyway the ring was left as a calling card. It wasn't the only piece of jewellery taken from Renee when she died. A bracelet was taken too."

"He's right." Gus said. "I remember we went over this last night."

"So quick assumption." Shawn said. "Nora's room had no sign of a struggle. She let the murderer in – it was someone she and the bride both knew."

"The groom?" Randall said.

"It's a big possibility." Shawn said. "Either that or someone who has the groom all tied up somewhere. In either case my suggestion is to promptly contact the rest of the wedding party and bring them in."

"Sounds like a plan." Randall said.

They finished at the scene and packed up. The three went back to Lassiter's car, Gus getting into the back seat, but before Shawn could grab his handle, Lassiter placed his hand on Shawn's shoulder.

"Question." Lassiter said.

"Yeah?" Shawn wasn't sure where this was going, Lassiter didn't seem to be in work mode at the moment.

"Your vision." Lassiter started. "Did it – hurt?"

"What?" For a second, Shawn didn't understand what Lassiter was asking.

"I've been doing some reading lately." Lassiter said. "I read that it's common for psychics to suffer severe migraine from visions. Or become exhausted – does that happen to you?" Lassiter looked so concerned in that instant, and so sincere that Shawn actually felt his head clench in three different spots. The further he got into this relationship with Lassie, the harder his secret got to keep. Yet Shawn knew that if revealing his secret meant losing Lassie, he'd take it to his grave. Still. He didn't like lying to the man he loved. Shawn gave a weak almost tired smile and put the truth in a lie.

"It hurts like hell Lassie." As Shawn said those words he hated how Lassiter's face fell, because he knew Lassie was _hating_ the fact something was hurting Shawn that was beyond Lassiter's control. So quickly Shawn changed the tone of their conversation. Shawn lightly pinched Lassie's nose with his thumb and index finger giving a humorous and high pitched "hmmmmm" sound. "But I promise -everything's going to be fine."

Lassiter sighed and nodded, and the two joined Gus in the car.

"Did Randall seem – nicer today?" Gus asked once they were settled.

"It was weird." Shawn agreed. "Like...he agreed with almost everything I said."

"I doubt it was personal." Lassiter said. "You did well in there Spencer."

"Awww thanks Lassie." Shawn extended his hand and lightly touched his fingers to Lassiter's hair. Lassiter gave a snide look and batted Shawn's hand away.

"Not while I'm driving." Lassiter said.

Shawn retorted with a joking 'come hither' look and Gus from the back seat rolled his eyes giving a very bold -"You guys make me sick." That of course made Shawn laugh.

Going back to the station didn't take long, they briefed with Chief Anderson and Randall about what they found, and Chief Anderson put Officer Jenny in charge of contacting the rest of the wedding party and having them come in. The three left the station after Shawn and Gus were given full orders to come back as early as the next morning.

"So!" Shawn exclaimed loudly as they exited the station. "Lunch anybody? Food? Gus? Lassie?"

"We have work to do Shawn." Gus said. "We have an afternoon to come up with something."

"Not much we can do until tomorrow." Shawn pointed out. "Officer Jenny is calling the wedding party in, but I doubt anything they say today will be any different from what they said at the reception."

"You have to trick em." Lassiter offered. "I think we should stay so you have a chance to talk to them."

"We will." Shawn insisted. "Just not today -right now I require a copious amount of mouth watering, delicious, stomach satisfying food. Like – now. Come on, we're a little off from the diner Gus and I ate at yesterday. Let's go back."

Gus inevitably agreed, and the three met up at the diner. Shawn happily pulled Lassiter aside when they walked in and pointed out the men's washroom.

"That bathroom over there, that's where I was when we had our little conversation the other day." Shawn grinned as the tips of Lassiter's ears turned red and the detective suddenly joined Gus at the table in one awkward movement, pulling a menu towards him and burying his face behind it as if it held the secret to curing world hunger. Gus watched this with Shawn in slight amusement, allowing a beat of silence to go by.

"Anybody else going to try the cob salad?" Lassiter said a bit awkwardly.

"Nah." Said Gus. "I had it yesterday, it wasn't that good. Today I'm just going with the fries and the shake."

"Then that will be my choice as well." However Lassiter still hadn't looked up from his menu. His ears were still red. Shawn inwardly cackled.

"First you invade my city, now you're in my diner? You three are really getting comfortable aren't you?"

That voice of course had to be Randall. The three of them looked up and the air immediately got tense, Randall stood in front of his table – Marcus at his side.

"It's just a diner." Shawn said. "I just came for the pie."

"Right." Randall said. He then looked over the table at Lassiter. "You look a little flushed detective, you feeling okay?"

"Perfectly fine." Lassiter said curtly. "We're just having lunch."

"Oh I know." Randall said. "Just making chit chat. Marcus and I eat lunch here every day."

"It's true." Marcus spoke for the first time since they got there. "Shawn – can I talk to you for a minute?"

The table went silent. Lassiter immediately looked up at Marcus with a warning glare. Randall tensed, and Gus actually sunk down in his seat a bit. Shawn awkwardly scratched the top of his head before giving a reluctant "Sure?"

He got up from the booth and followed Marcus to the other end of the diner, leaving the other three looking confused.

"What is it?" Shawn asked immediately.

"You're on the case now?" Marcus asked.

"Uh – yeah." Shawn said. "Randall doesn't tell you much does he?"

"I'm a mailman, not a cop or consultant – he can't."

"Good point." Shawn said followed right away by a "Wait... – you're a mail man again?"

"..I never stopped." Marcus said. "Anyway that's not what I want to talk to you about."

"Because that would be weird." Shawn commented a bit dryly. "So come on, spit it out."

"Randall." Marcus said.

"Wants to join to circus?" Shawn finished.

"No - stop that." Marcus answered. "I want you to try getting along with him."

Shawn's face went blank. There was a beat of silence followed immediately by a "nu uh." From Shawn.

"Oh come on!"Marcus' tone became a bit pleading. "He's really, not a bad guy. He has a shell; you just have to break in a little. I promise. If you act nice towards him solving the case will be a lot easier – on both of you."

"Need I remind you I have Lassie and Gus? I'm hired by the CHPD which fine – great, but I honestly don't need them to solve this thing. The fact that they're paying me to do it is just a nice bonus."

"I'm asking Shawn – please?" Marcus looked a bit desperate. Shawn struggled with himself, he wanted to say no just for spite, after all Marcus – Shawn remembered already owed Shawn a favour. Shawn gritted his teeth and started willing the word no to come to fruition – he tried, and when he thought he was ready to speak again he did. However his mouth completely betrayed his brain.

"Oh.. Alright." What? That wasn't no. Shawn hated himself.

_Idiot._

"Thank you so much!" Marcus looked relieved, which made it even worse. Shawn liked making other people happy, so now he couldn't back down. Oh Marcus was a manipulative one.

"I'm not going to enjoy this at all." Shawn promised. "I'll be cursing your name the whole way."

"Don't you already?" Marcus asked.

"Not really." Shawn said.

"Really?" Marcus suddenly looked hopeful.

"Uh..." Shawn had no idea where that look suddenly came from. "I mean yes – yes it does?" Oh Shawn didn't know what he was doing anymore.

From the other side of the diner, the other three were watching rather intently. Each for their own reasons; Gus and Lassiter overly concerned for Shawn, and Randall unable to pry his eyes from Marcus. However it seemed to be the first moment since they all met that they were all on the same page.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Gus asked.

"Beats the hell out of me." Randall said.

"Well whatever it is, I don't like it." Lassiter finished. The three looked at each other with matching stern looks. Finally Shawn and Marcus returned to the table. "What was that about?" Lassiter aimed the question at Marcus who just gave a weak shrug.

"Nothing really, I was just asking Shawn a quick favour."

"Right." Lassiter's voice was thick with venom. He couldn't help it really, he looked at Marcus and didn't see a man, Lassiter saw him as an abuser. Lassiter could remember vividly every time the two spoke over the interrogation room table during the Atkinson case, and how bad Lassiter just wanted Marcus to confess or to do anything really that would allow the detective to use force. This man hurt Shawn. Years ago – but still, Lassiter was a pro at holding grudges.

Shawn seemed to note the look of pure disdain on Lassiter's face and got a bit annoyed. "Drop it." Was all he said.

Lassiter almost didn't believe Shawn was defending Marcus. He bit his tongue not wanting to cause any further trouble. Randall however didn't seem to hold that will power out of work mode.

"Yeah detective, drop it."

At Randall's domineering tone something in Lassiter snapped. "Your significant other has no right talking to mine at all so just stay out of it Peterson!"

"Lassie!" Shawn almost yelled. The slight hollering was enough that other people in the diner were staring.

The situation was getting a little heated, Gus stepped in. He stood up loudly clearing his throat. "We're leaving now. Come on guys. Randall – we'll see you in the morning."

Lassiter was gritting his teeth, and was ready to strike but none the less he agreed. Standing, he came rather close to Randall and the two detectives seemed to just growl at each other with sparks flying between them. Marcus looked down right embarrassed as did Shawn, but Shawn however was more vocal. He grabbed Lassiter's arm and pulled him towards Gus. "We're leaving -now."

The three left, and as soon as they were yet again in Lassiter's car, Lassiter was driving back to Santa Barbara. They drove in silence, Lassiter at that point just not wanting to get into it. He dropped Shawn and Gus off at the Psych office. Shawn turned to the car window to say something but Lassiter just drove away. Shawn gave an exasperated sigh.

"Dammit it all." Shawn said. "He got so touchy."

"What exactly were you expecting?" Gus said. "You know Marcus is always going to be a sore spot for him."

"I guess, still, Marcus wasn't saying anything offensive or anything." Shawn explained. "He was actually asking me to try to get along with Randall."

"Nothing wrong with that." Gus commended. "But you weren't about to say that in the diner in front of Randall."

"True." Shawn sighed. "I'll have to call Lassie and explain then, maybe cool his jets a bit. He's still coming with us in the morning."

"No. You're not." Back at the station Chief Vic made her order quite clear. "Tomorrow Mr. Spencer and Mr. Guster will be returning to Coral Haven alone."

"Excuse me?" Lassiter said. "Chief I was brought on with them as a helping hand."

"I know Detective." Vic said. "However you also divulged to Detective Peterson that you and Mr. Spencer were in a romantic relationship. Detective Peterson didn't have a choice. He contacted Chief Anderson who contacted me – long story short, you're off the case." Her voice was stern.

"You didn't say anything to defend me?" Lassiter said. "Chief it's been more than six months since Spencer and I started our relationship. My work hasn't wavered once, you know that. You defended me right?"

"It's hard to defend a detective who doesn't think twice about starting petty fights in truck stop diners." The Chief said. "The most I could do was have Chief Anderson agree not to that add that colourful little story to your profile."

Aw crap, realization that Lassiter had acted like a bit of a jerk hit him hard and he caved. "I'm off the case then." Lassiter said.

"Yes." Chief Vic said. "I expect you to contact Mr. Spencer and let him know, then first thing tomorrow, you're to return here to resume your regular work with O'Hara."

Lassiter understood and waited for the Chief to make her leave before he grabbed for his phone, before he grabbed it however, it rang and Shawn's number appeared on the caller screen. Lassiter answered. "I'm off the case." Were the first words out of his mouth.

"Seriously?" Shawn in that instant forgot why he was calling. "What happened?"

"Your friend Randy cop ran off and told his Chief what I said in the diner about us. Chief Anderson doesn't think it's a good idea for me to stay on since we're romantically involved."

"Sunava..." Shawn cursed. "Oh this is going to make things so much harder."

"Harder?" Lassiter was confused.

"In the diner, Marcus had pulled me aside to ask me to try to get along with Randy cop. I really didn't want too, but Marcus convinced me and I figured it would make solving the case a little easier. But now Randy cop's pretty much ensured I'm going to be doing it without you..."

"Don't worry about it." Lassiter said. "You've solved plenty of cases without me, most of them with me fighting you. Do what you can to get it done, and give detective Peterson a good run for his money for me." Lassiter tried to sound encouraging.

On Shawn's end of the phone conversation his face lit up, he and Gus had long split ways by now and Shawn was comfortably at home. "You busy for the rest of the evening?"

"Not that I know of." Lassiter said. "What are you thinking?"

"Come over." Shawn urged.

Lassiter was there in no less than ten minutes. He knocked on the door, and as soon as Shawn opened it he dragged the detective in for a kiss under the threshold. Lassiter responded, by grabbing Shawn's shirt and kissing back roughly. Shawn's hands gripping the sides of Lassiter's head, his fingers lacing through the detective's hair. The two shared muffled moans as they refused to part, lazily walking into Shawn's apartment whilst intertwined, Shawn slamming the door behind them. At the end of the kiss, Lassiter had turned Shawn around roughly pinning him to the door with a dull thud. Their lips separated.

"Still mad about the diner?" Shawn breathed.

"Livid." Lassiter nearly growled in return, his voice equally strained for breath.

"Good." Shawn said. "Angry sex."

Their lips collided again, and Lassiter kept his body pinned against Shawn's. Possessively his tongue dragged across Shawn's lower lip, demanding entrance, and with another muffled moan Shawn obliged. Lassiter's tongue was persistent in its exploring; caressing every crease it could reach. Shawn's entire body reacted, and he became flushed and compliant, his legs lifting off the ground to wrap around Lassiter's waist.

Lassiter was surprisingly strong, and held Shawn perfectly in place against the door. Eventually his mouth did stray away from Shawn's and it travelled, leaving kisses and small bites along Shawn's jaw line towards the crook of Shawn's neck. Shawn was giving encouraging little moans, and the second Lassiter bit down on sensitive skin, Shawn arched off the door crying out loudly. He pushed at Lassiter a tad violently. He stepped away from the door staring the detective down, only to grab onto Lassiter's tie and pulling him in for another rough kiss.

Hands got involved then, Shawn's hands grabbing feverishly at Lassiter's shirt buttons undoing them two at a time, and Lassiter's hands grabbing a hold of Shawn's belt – undoing it and pulling it out of Shawn's pants with a loud _SNAP_ before carelessly tossing it aside.

They landed on Shawn's floor in a desperate heap, pulling at clothes and rolling on top of one another like wild animals. Lassiter's shirt was the next item to go, Shawn miraculously leaving him his tie. He scratched along Lassiter's pectorals making the detective clench. In response, Lassiter grabbed at Shawn's shirt, lifting it over his head and discarding it, his mouth easily finding one of Shawn's nipples and latching on.

Shawn's resounding moan however was met with the sound of breaking glass.

Both men froze in place.

"The hell was that?" Shawn breathed – their current position was Lassiter straddling Shawn.

"I don't know." Lassiter said. They waited, and listened. Again they heard the sound of glass breaking. Lassiter was up and off Shawn in an instant, grabbing for his shirt.

Shawn was up and he was looking to where he had heard the sound come from – the front of his apartment. From his front window, just behind the curtain he could see a faint light flickering. Something in Shawn's stomach dropped and he went straight for the window.

"Spencer don't open the curtain!" Lassiter hissed, Shawn was only half listening and lightly he lifted the curtain to peek outside of his apartment. In that instance he yelled.

"My bike!" Shawn ripped his curtain open and watched horrified as his bike was surrounded by fire. Lassiter swore and moved to the window to see what Shawn was seeing. In a panic, Shawn turned to grab for his door to go outside and Lassiter practically had to tackle him.

"Spencer no! For all you know the person who did this is out there waiting to kill you! Stay here, I'm calling for back up!" Lassiter held Shawn in place and grabbed for his cell phone.

As Lassiter was making the call, Shawn caught the glimpse of a shadowed figure running off in the background. He acted immediately, slipping out of Lassiter's grasp and bolting out the door.

"HEY!" Shawn yelled through the smoke at the person, who of course started going faster. They had their entire face and head covered with a hood and mask, still Shawn was phased. He took off in a run after the perp, wearing no socks or shirt.

Lassiter was in shock when Shawn took off, he just finished telling O'Hara he needed help at Spencer's before Shawn ran off. "Shawn!" He hung up the phone and went after Shawn.

He didn't have to run very far, he found Shawn around the corner, perfectly fine but looking downright pissed. He was clenching something in his one hand.

"Shawn?" Lassiter stepped lightly. "Shawn the fire department and the SBPD are on their way, you need to be there – Shawn?"

"I wanted to believe the throat stabbings were just a coincidence." Shawn said. "That's why I didn't bother staying around long enough to tell Randall about the Atkinson case. Shawn absently touched his hand to the bullet scar left there by Kayla Atkinson ten months prior. "They're connected somehow." Shawn said, and even though he wasn't trying to show it, Lassiter could tell Shawn was somewhat afraid.

"Shawn?"

Shawn turned and held up what the perp had dropped on the run. It was Renee's bracelet.

"It's a warning." Shawn said. Lassiter didn't know what to say. He gently touched Shawn's arm – which was freezing.

"You're going to get sick." Lassiter said. "Come on." He didn't really know what else to say. He knew Shawn wasn't about to drop the case so why bother? Shawn only confirmed this, speaking lowly as they walked back towards Shawn's apartment and the flames.

"This case is going to suck."


	5. Strangers in the Elevator

**Strangers in the Elevator**

**A/N: **Again, it's been awhile. Not because of a busy work season this time though. This time, I am currently in the process of putting together a cosplay for Anime North in May. The costume so far is taking a lot of man hours. Tons of paper mache, even more spray paint, and chicken wire. Yes chicken wire. For those who are interested, I'm cosplaying as Alpha 5 from the original Power Rangers. No idea who that is – GOOGLE IT!

Enjoy the chapter!

~Matilda

"Thankfully, whoever set the fire only set it around the bike. There were a few damages, but it's all repairable. You got off lucky Mr. Spencer."

The fireman in question spoke to Shawn completely uninterested. The fire had long been put out but he was still answering questions and glancing to hopefully spot something that would lead him to the person he had chased off after the fire was started. So far no luck. With a quick 'thanks' and a polite nod, Shawn stepped away from the firefighter and tried to get more of a look at the scene.

"Shawn?"

Shawn turned to face Juliet who had arrived with McNab shortly after Lassiter made the 911 call. He gave a bit of a half smile and a low shrug. "My bike wasn't destroyed."

"No." Juliet agreed, and then all too suddenly her tone became that of a fretting mother. "But my piece of mind was! Shawn what were you thinking running after the perp like that? !"

Shawn blinked at the outburst, before giving a "uh – I was thinking...Catch the bad guy?" There was a beat of silence before Shawn followed up on his answer. "Wait – how did you know?"

"It was in Lassiter's statement." Juliet said. "But don't turn this on him, Shawn – how could you be so reckless?"

"Whoa now – reckless – me?" Shawn defended. "My bike was on fire – I saw whoever it was that did it, running away, I chased, nothing happened."

"Reckless Shawn." Juliet made herself perfectly clear. "Really reckless."

"Jules – come on." Shawn said. "I was just doing what you or Lassiter would've done."

"What if the perp had a weapon Shawn?"

Shawn paused then answered truthfully. "Then I probably would've been screwed. Look Jules, don't be mad okay? I wasn't thinking. But I'm fine, so we can just drop it now."

"Fine." Juliet said. "You already gave your statement to McNab right?"

"Sure did." Shawn said. "I even managed to use my word of the day."

Juliet quirked a brow. "Word of the day?"

"My word a day calendar." Shawn said innocently. "Gus got it for me for Christmas. Today's word was gallant. I _gallantly_ pursued the suspect."

Juliet gave a tight grin. "Congratulations on your _vigorous _though fruitless venture."

Shawn paused. "You put a lot of emphasis on the word vigorous."

"Vigorous is today's word Shawn." Juliet said. "Gus got me the same calendar. Gallant was two days ago."

Shawn's face blanked. "Darn. I knew I was behind on something – hey hold on! Gus got us matching gifts? Really? I mean no offence I know you're dating him, but how is it suddenly you and I are on the same gift list? Shouldn't there be some like girlfriend/best friend gift line – with the best friend slightly elevated on the price point? Or is it totally acceptable I get Lassie and Gus matching ties next year? If that's the case, Christmas just got SO much easier...Still it feels kind of wrong."

All Juliet could do was laugh at Shawn's expense shaking her head.

Shawn eventually went back to Lassiter who at this point looked downright sour. It was all Shawn could do not to hug him in front of all these people. Shawn didn't really care, but Lassiter hated PDA so Shawn refrained.

"I just had a thought." Lassiter said. "The perp knows where you live."

"Yeah." Shawn said. "I had that thought too, and it really doesn't help that we're pretty convinced whoever started the fire, also killed Renee, and Nora, and is holding Dave captive...Unless it is Dave, but I have my doubts on that one."

"It's turning into a big mess." Lassiter said right away. "A big mess you're right in the middle of and I – can't do anything to help you."

Shawn softened. "I'll be okay." He promised. "You said it yourself, CHPD isn't half bad. They got my back."

"I guess so." Lassiter said. "But you'll call me right? At the first sign of any real danger – you'll call me?"

"Of course!" Shawn promised. "Hey – there is a bright side to this I hope you know."

"Oh?" Lassiter asked. "And what would that be Spencer? Fire suddenly turns pineapples into cotton candy?"

"No." Shawn said. "But that would be – kind of amazing. Lassie you creative bastard you! Pineapple flavoured cotton candy is officially the first thing I am going to try to invent when I'm staying at your place!"

"What's this?" Lassiter snapped to attention. "My place?"

"Why not?" Shawn said. "We've been shacking up anyway."

Lassiter held back a groan. Lately his feelings for Shawn were becoming dangerously intimate; hell he even admitted to himself he loved the other man. He just wasn't ready to say it. He really wasn't sure if he could handle Shawn being around all the time. Of course on the other hand, with the dark turns Shawn's case seemed to be taking lately – how could he not have Shawn around all the time? Lassiter sighed. "Why do you do these things to me?"

"What things?" Shawn asked with a small laugh, it was like he knew what Lassiter was thinking.

"Nothing." Lassiter said dropped it. "My place then."

"You don't sound too happy." Shawn said. "If you're not ready, I'm totally okay with that. Oh! Oh! Best idea ever! I could go – into witness protection! Have the SBPD pay for a hotel room, I could be Sanchez Diablo, and every night you could meet me in the lobby and we'll play a frisky game I like to call – strangers in an elevator. WHATS UP! ?" Shawn abrasively made some weird foreign gangster hand gesture. Lassiter just blinked at him. This was a guy who just had his property set on fire...yup.

"I think it'll be better if you just stay with me after all." Lassiter said.

Shawn looked delighted, and suddenly – that's how Lassiter felt. Shawn then turned to look at the scene still unfolding around them; SBPD were still investigating, smoke was still strong in the air, the cold air was now starting to sting against his bare arms and feet – he really should've taken the time to get dressed. Well too late, Henry was marching right towards them.

"Oh crap." Shawn spoke as Henry finally reached the couple. "Hiya daddy – what's up?"

"A fire?" Henry said right away. "A fire? Shawn – what the hell?"

"How is it, you always seem to show up when stuff like this happens?" Shawn asked. He was honestly perplexed.

"Juliet called me. " Henry answered.

"Of course she did." Shawn wasn't surprised.

"Are you okay?" Henry finally asked.

"Dad I'm fine." Shawn said. "The fire's out, and until everything's blown over. I'm staying with Lassie."

Henry quirked a brow. "You're not going into witness protection?"

"I'm dating a detective." Shawn answered.

Henry gave Lassiter a look over then looked back to Shawn unsure. "You're not going into witness protection?"

"Wow dad." Shawn said. "You just got yourself a hard earned ellipses." With that Shawn paused for exactly three beats. ". . ." Before giving a well emphasised. "No." Followed by a "did you hear that moment of silence right then? It was awesome; nobody says ellipses like I do!"

"He'll be safe with me." Lassiter promptly cut in with a promise. "I've got more guns in my house than an American gangster sequel." Lassiter looked proud of himself then. Henry looked grim.

"I was afraid you'd say something like that." Henry said.

"I meant every word." Lassiter said seriously.

"I know." Henry resisted the urge to face palm. "Trust me – I know."

Shawn held back a chuckle – oh this was kind of funny to watch. Both his dad and Lassiter appeared to be in some kind of pained struggle with each other. Shawn would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy being blanketed by the bravado of over protectiveness. Hell, if asked in that very moment he'd admit to feeling pretty damn special. Still, he had to intervene at some point. "Well dad, I'm glad you could make it but! It's getting late, they've towed my bike, and I need to be in Coral Haven tomorrow morning to turn over evidence and re-group with Randy cop."

Henry blinked. "Who?"

"Randall Peterson." Shawn said. "The detective assigned to the murdered bride's case."

"You're working that?" Henry sounded confused. "I thought you weren't."

"Yeahhh." Shawn said. "It's a long story involving a chimp-munk like rookie and her eagerness to please. I don't really want to get into it."

"Aw." Henry said. "Well, you've got me on speed dial."

There was a pause of silence. "Speed dial." Shawn laughed. "I sure do...not...hahaha..." Shawn then coughed when the moment became awkward.

Lassiter cringed on Henry's behalf.

"You don't have me on speed dial?" Henry asked. "Really?"

"I did." Shawn said truthfully. "Then you know, my service provider only lets me have so many numbers, and it got so hard to choose..."

"Who replaced me?" Henry asked again. "Who took speed dial priority over your own father?"

"Uh..." Shawn said. "Chinos bar and grill..."

"What?" Henry's expression turned to one of disbelief.

"It's a restaurant in the North end. They deliver burritos at 3AM."

"You took me off speed dial for burritos at 3AM?" Henry answered in the only way he knew how – confusion.

"They're the most delicious burrito to ever burrito." Shawn said. "Don't be upset with me papa bear – I love you enough to have your number memorized! See? It's all good – promise."

Henry regarded his son with a sceptical look. "I'm going home. Pack your ass up and get to Carlton's, and don't even THINK of coming back here until this whole thing is blown over – got it?"

Shawn gave a salute. "Yes sir!"

"And for god's sake." Henry continued. "Put some clothes on!"

Shawn instead of resounding with another exuberant 'yes sir' just hollered back. "Sir – but I like being cold sir! The cold air on my nipples makes me feel oddly alive sir!"

"That's disgusting." Lassiter spoke up. Shawn laughed. Lassiter frowned. Henry rolled his eyes.

"I'll talk to you later Shawn." Henry said as he left. "Carlton – always a pleasure, kind of."

"You too." Lassiter said. "Any tips on handling Shawn while he's in my house?"

Henry stopped walking and turned to face the detective. "An illegal sedative, and if that doesn't work – distract him with something shiny."

After Henry was gone, it took Shawn about an hour to get dressed and grab everything he needed to stay with Lassiter. By the time they got through Lassiter's door, the adrenaline in Shawn was dangerously low. For the second time in three days he slumped into bed, without the thought of changing into something more comfortable. Though not that it really mattered, when Shawn had gotten dressed back at his place, the most he did was grab a t-shirt and sneakers. Didn't even bother with socks and the sneakers had been kicked into Lassiter's front hall the second he got in.

"Lassie." Shawn called after he adjusted himself accordingly to be more comfortable on his side of the bed. "Come to me."

Lassiter rolled his eyes, but then looked at the way Shawn had curled up; he curled up like that whenever he was worn out. He used to do that a lot after the Atkinson case. The detective's primal instinct was to curl up with him, taking Shawn into his arms and petting his head. It was overly affectionate, a side to the detective only Shawn was allowed to see. Of course he couldn't be too soft. "Go to sleep Spencer."

Shawn sighed happily; 'go to sleep Spencer' was Lassiter's way of saying good night. Shawn knew it wasn't ideal but he wasn't about to ask for anything else. "Night Lassiefrass." He replied, it was his way of saying 'you don't have to tell me twice.'

The next day was a bit of a battle getting to Coral Haven. Shawn had completely forgotten to call Gus and tell him to pick him up at Lassiter's. However Jules must've passed along the message, because no more than six hours after falling asleep was Shawn woken up violently by the sound of the blueberry's horn. It seemed Gus was rather impatient today. Shawn groaned as the horn sounded again and sat up in the bed, he glanced over to the window where Lassiter was in the process of sticking his head out to yell at Gus.

"Guster! You're waking up the whole neighbourhood!"

"Tell Shawn to hurry it up then! We're running late!"

Lassiter grumbled and brought his head back inside to look over at Shawn who was standing up. Still dressed in his t-shirt and pants from the night before, he figured it would have to do. "Got any socks I can borrow?"

Lassiter just reached into a side drawer on his dresser and threw a pair of black socks at Shawn, as soon as Shawn caught them, he was commenting on how soft they were. "Where the hell do you buy your socks?"

"Same place everyone else buys their socks, I just don't cheap out like the rest of the world. That extra dollar does make a difference."

Shawn made a face. "This conversation turned oddly domesticated."

"Yeah well, stick with anybody long enough and you're bound to have a few conversations about laundry – now get lost, if Guster honks that horn one more time, I will pay an ex con to key the hood."

"Harsh." Shawn said, he then laughed and quickly made do with the socks before slipping on his shoes and going to meet Gus. "Hey!" Shawn said. "You're a little trigger happy this morning aren't you?"

"We're late Shawn." Gus said, at which Shawn responded with a playful.

"You're late! Oh my god does Jules know? Oooo! I'm so throwing you a shower!"

"Not funny!" Gus snapped. They started driving. Gus became stony and silent.

"You're mad." Shawn said then. "What's up?"

"Oh nothing." Gus said. "Except, my best friend had his property set on fire last night, and instead of hearing from him I had to hear it from my girlfriend."

"Aw." Shawn said. "Hey Gus -last night my property was set ablaze. Totally sucked, but I'm totally okay. I'm staying with Lassie until the murdered bride case is solved, mostly because we have reason to believe the arsonist is also the murderer."

"Really?" Gus said suddenly interested. "What makes you think that?"

"Because." Shawn said. "Last night I chased a guy."

"You chased a guy?"

"Or girl, I'm still not entirely sure – but! They dropped this." Shawn held up the baggie with the bracelet.

"Damn." Gus said in a low voice. "Shawn I'm really starting not to like this."

"You think I am?" Shawn said. "Lassie's practically flipping out over it – he's off the case by the way. Apparently Chief Anderson looks down on the fact the one member of SBPD I chose to help me out, just happened to be the guy I'm seeing."

"Can't say I disagree." Gus said then. "It's a work image thing. Chief Anderson probably would've done the same thing if we had recruited Juliet."

"I guess." Shawn said.

"How did Chief Anderson even know about you and Lassiter?" Gus asked then.

"He's psychic." Shawn joked. "Randy cop told him."

"Damn." Gus said again.

"Hey!" Shawn suddenly sounded cheerful. "You're not mad anymore!"

Gus sighed. "I guess not."

"It's my baby face isn't it?" Shawn asked. "No one can stay mad at my baby face for too long."

"Your narcissism is showing." Gus grumbled.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Shawn said innocently.

"Yeah – right." Gus said sarcastically.

"No really." Shawn said. "I have no idea what you just said. Narciss-ss-ssi-ssism – what does that word even mean?"

"Really?" Gus said suddenly. "Really Shawn? The story of Narcissus, the man who was cursed into falling in love with his own reflection?"

"That's a curse?" Shawn retorted. "Well, I'm screwed."

"Forget it!" Gus said. "We're here."

The two had pulled into the Coral Haven police station and were exiting the car. By the time they entered the building, Officer Jenny was on her feet and racing towards them. "Guys!"

"Officer Jenny." Shawn greeted. "How are you this morning?"

"Great!" She said. "But I heard about the fire. Oh Shawn that sucks so bad!"

"News spreads fast huh?" Shawn said. "Well, yeah it sucked, but now I have a case to work on. Come on Gus." Shawn motioned for Gus to follow him, but before Gus could move, Officer Jenny was lightly grabbing his arm.

"Gus can meet you up stairs." Officer Jenny said. "I want to ask him something."

"Er – okay." Gus said. "Why not. I'll only be a minute Shawn."

Shawn shrugged. "Alright, have fun you too." Shawn turned on his heel and headed towards the elevator. The door closed behind him, and he could just feel the elevator start to lift only to stop after a few seconds on the second floor. The doors opened again and the one to join him in the elevator had to be Randy cop.

"Spencer." Randall greeted tightly.

"Morning." Shawn responded.

"No Gus today? Or Lassie for that matter?" Randall's tone was a bit condescending. Shawn had a feeling Randall was picking for a fight. Shawn wasn't about to give it to him.

"Gus is downstairs talking to Officer Jenny, and Lassiter unfortunately is off the case. That's okay though. I've solved plenty of cases without his help." Shawn offered a polite smile.

"Well, best of luck." Randall said cheerfully. There was a moment of silence before both Shawn and Randall noticed something. "We're not moving." Randall said.

"Yeah, I knew that about two seconds ago." Shawn said.

"The elevator didn't make a sound." Randall said. "Weird."

"Well, grab the emergency phone." Shawn said.

Randall obliged, but when he opened the box, the red phone fell uselessly to the ground, all of its wires having been brutally cut. "That's not good."

Slight panic started to reach Shawn – he was stuck in an elevator, with Randy cop, and the emergency phone had been tampered with. Shawn instinctively reached for his phone.

"What are you doing?" Randall asked. "I don't think you're going to get service." Still the detective was reaching for his phone as well.

"I can try." Shawn said. He turned his phone off, and sure enough he had no bars. "Nothing, you?"

"Nothing." Randall said. Both men grumbled under their breaths.

"Well now what?" Shawn asked.

"You're asking me?" Randall said. "Spencer, you're the psychic, you figure it out."

"Well, someone is bound to notice we're stuck sooner or later." Shawn said. "We could just wait it out."

"Oh – goody." Randall half laughed. "No offence, you're the last person I want to wait it out with."

"Yeah well, you're not exactly my first choice either." Shawn sighed. "Compromise. We don't talk. We sit our buts down, and play angry birds while waiting for help."

"I don't have angry birds on my phone." Randall said then. "I'm using my work phone right now. No games. Just contacts."

"Aw." Shawn said, he then started to boot up the game on his phone. "Well then you're just going to have to twiddle your thumbs."

Randall just rolled his eyes, and spoke lowly. "I can't believe Marcus wants me to try and like you."

Shawn looked up. "Marcus wants you to try to like me?"

"Yeah." Randall said dryly. "It's all he could talk about, frankly I'm not interested."

"Funny." Shawn said. "That's what he wanted to talk to me about yesterday at the diner. I had the same reaction."

"He can't expect us to get along." Randall said. "Again no offence, but he's my fiancé. You don't make friends with a fiancé's ex -especially when every time your fiancé says his ex's name, you blue ball."

"Classy." Shawn said, and he actually laughed a bit. "So Marcus told you how we know each other huh?"

"Yeah." Randall said. "I wasn't happy about it. But I guess he only hit you once. So I'm not suddenly concerned he's going to become abusive or anything. Not that he could. I'm a cop. I'd own him if he tried."

"Ahuh." Shawn said. "It was a long time ago, we can just forget about me being underage at the time."

"Oh I've already forced myself to forget." Randall admitted. "Honesty. Sucks."

"Yeah well, without lies we wouldn't need cops." Shawn said. "Or psychics for that matter."

"You know it's been ten minutes and we're not killing each other." Randall pointed out.

"I left my shanking knife at home." Shawn joked. "And you can't draw your gun without filling out paper work so I guess we're at a stand-still."

"This counts." Randall said. "This counts as us getting along. But only this time."

"Great!" Shawn agreed. "Marcus is happy, and we can go back to hating each other as soon as we get out of here."

As soon as Shawn said that, the elevator gave a violent creek. The lights flickered, and then went out.

"If we get out of here." Shawn finished.

The elevator then lurched downward, the force was enough both Shawn and Randall fell, but luckily the elevator stopped again.

"Not good." Randall said.

"Really not good." Shawn said. He then helped himself to his feet grabbing at his phone, using the screen as a flash light. "I have a feeling if we don't get out of here; something bad is going to happen." The elevator then lurched again. Randall and Shawn didn't fall this time, this time they both managed to grab the silver rail that lined the wall.

"You don't need to be a psychic to know that!" Randall hollered.

"Shut up!" Shawn yelled back. He then waved his phone around the small space, logic leading him to the ceiling. "We might have to pull off some Bourne stunt." Shawn said.

"No way." Randall said immediately. "We're going to be fine."

The elevator lurched again.

"I do not see this as fine!" Shawn said, "Give me a boost."

"Are you crazy Spencer?" Randall asked. "No."

The elevator lurched again and this time Shawn heard something break.

"Yes!" Shawn used a very urgent tone. "Yes I am crazy! Crazy enough to want to live past today, now give me a boost, for all we know the next time the elevator lurches, we're going straight down, and no offence but you're the last person I want to share a grave with."

Randall sighed but eventually agreed, he knelt down letting Shawn step onto his closed palms. Shawn had to cradle Randall's head for balance, and Randall was about to lift Shawn up when the lights flashed back on and the elevator started moving upward again; the sudden movement had caused Shawn to fall, taking Randall with him.

"Well." Shawn said then, he then looked down to the position he and Randall had gotten himself into. "This is awkward." He was currently straddling Randall's chest.

"Get off me." Randall growled.

Of course before could move the elevator chimed and the doors opened.

"Yes, please." Chief Anderson cut in from his office. "Get off him."

Shawn had to keep from blushing, good god this was a bad day so far. He stood up before awkwardly holding out his hand to help Randall up, Randall just batted Shawn's hand away like it was diseased. They both entered the Chief's office, with Officer Jenny and Gus staring at them wide mouthed.

"Gus." Shawn said. "You beat me up here."

"I know." Gus said. "We took the stairs." He then pointed to a doorway just left to the elevator. Shawn was immediately upset.

"How long has that been there?" Shawn quipped. "Or a better question yet, how lazy am I that I haven't noticed until now?"

"Even better question." Chief Anderson said. "How is it my hired help can't seem to get to my office in time, yet still finds time to straddle my detectives?" He didn't sound pleased.

"Not on purpose!" Shawn said in defence. "The elevator was stuck."

"We know." Chief Anderson said. "Maintenance fixed it."

"Then technically I'm not late." Shawn said. "The elevator was stuck."

"You're late." Anderson repeated. He then turned the computer monitor on his desk around for Shawn to glance at; it was currently showing security footage of the whole station. "I tell you to arrive by 9, you and Guster walk in at 9:03 – you're late."

"Okay." Shawn caved. "I'm late. Though the elevator, made me later then it should've."

"Well that and your favourite pass time of coming on to detectives." Anderson's tone was a bit cold.

"I was not coming onto him." Shawn was getting mad, if the Chief kept accusing him of this, he would walk out – screw this case.

"He wasn't." Randall finally spoke up. "We weren't sure whether or not the elevator was safe. It kept lurching, and Shawn had the idea to climb out the top. I was giving him a boost up when it started moving again. It took us both by surprise, we fell. That's when the door opened."

"You couldn't have said that at the beginning?" Shawn turned to Randall with a bit of steam coming out his ears, Randall just shrugged.

"You were squirming. You're kind of funny when you squirm."

"He's not wrong." Officer Jenny spoke up.

"Shawn, we'll be on time tomorrow." Gus said. He then turned to Chief Anderson. "You can count on that."

"Whatever!" Chief Anderson was reaching his wits end. "Officer Jenny, send the elevator the bottom floor and grab a couple guys, find out why it stopped."

"Question people too." Randall added in. "We tried the emergency phone, it was tampered with."

"Right." Officer Jenny nodded, and pushed the elevator button going down before jogging down the stairs to meet it on the bottom floor.

"Now you three." Chief Anderson said. "Evidence. Now. Then you have a whole wedding party showing up at 11 for separate questioning. If you're going to grab food I suggest grabbing it go. It's going to be a long day, and I don't want anyone clocking out until we got something. Clear?"

Gus, Shawn and Randall all nodded. "Clear."

"Good." Chief Anderson turned his monitor back around and started to do something with his computer.

"Now get to work."


	6. Picture Phone

**A/N:**Yay a new chapter! I don't have a lot to say on this chapter. I personally had a TON of fun writing it, so this is a rare chapter where I will actually beg for **reviews.** What did you think? How bad was my grammar this time? Where do you think the story is going to go?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

~Matilda

P.S

Also for those of you haven't read the pre-quell "I Can't Believe it's Not Spencer." You're in luck! I added a summary in this chapter, so consider yourself either filled in or spoiled!

**Picture Phone**

Examining the evidence was a little dull; every single murder weapon had been dusted for prints, each one coming up with nothing. Whoever the perp was – they worked clean.

"I'm starting to think this could turn into a serial killer case." Randall huffed a bit scratching his head. "So far everything is clean, except for the bracelet which has Shawn's grubby hands on it, but even then I have a stupid statement from Lassiter all about how he saw you touch it after it was dropped in pursuit."

Shawn felt a little proud at that, Lassiter had been prompt with his witness report and was quick to fax it to CHPD before they managed to dust the bracelet. It was a personal best for Lassiter and Shawn made a mental note to 'congratulate' him later. "Not quite a serial killer case yet." Shawn added. "Two victims isn't much, especially if they're victims that are connected so closely. The case still screams 'domestic' to me. Someone had a jealous streak."

"We just have to find out who." Gus added in. "First the bride, then a bridesmaid. Logic says – another bridesmaid?"

"Or groomsmen." Shawn said. "How much longer until the wedding party gets here?" Shawn asked.

Randall looked to his watch. "Twenty minutes."

"Fantastic." Shawn said. "What if some of them don't show up?"

"Then legal action will be taken." Randall explained. "They're all under police orders, failure to comply results in being held as a suspect. You don't come to us, we come to you."

"Aw." Shawn clicked his teeth looking over the table at everything they had so far. Two knives, a ring, and a bracelet. Someone was definitely trying to send a strong message. "Kayla Atkinson." Shawn said lightly.

"Who?" Randall asked.

"Is still in Jail." Gus cut in.

"Excuse me." Randall cut in. "Would someone mind filling in the cop?"

"Right." Shawn cursed a bit, he was hoping the two cases were just coincidental – but it seemed they weren't and now Shawn had to relive that nightmare. He turned to face Randall, and then looked to Gus. "Ten months ago, there was a murder in Santa Barbara, his name was Derek Atkinson and when the SBPD first found him, they believed him to be me. For a good five minutes I was legally declared dead. He was stabbed in the throat like the victims in this case. The culprit turned out to be his sister Kayla Atkinson. She was a gay 'psychologist.' She originally came to Santa Barbara to meet with Davis Tuly, and they tried to convert his son Marcus – yes your Marcus. They failed. Before Kayla and Derek left, Kayla found Marcus in a compromising position with Derek. She got angry, lured him into a warehouse and killed him. I eventually got on the case with Lassie, and by the time I figured out it was her, she and Davis had cornered me in his house and almost killed me."

Randall's mouth went a little dry. He was hearing everything Shawn was saying, but all he was getting out of it was – 'Marcus is involved.' That didn't bode well with him. "Kayla Atkinson." Randall repeated. "Still in jail?"

"Yes." Shawn answered.

"Then it's a lead that can wait for now." Randall said. "The wedding party is due to arrive; we need to move to the basement."

"Okay." Shawn and Gus agreed, and soon the three were trekking it down the stairs where they could hear multiple mutters of people talking.

Back in Santa Barbara, Lassiter was lost in thought. He had suspected the two cases were connected from the get go, but couldn't pursue the thought unless they found a more concrete lead. However, now that Lassiter was off the case. He could do whatever he wanted. So he decided to clock out early and go visit Ms. Atkinson in Jail.

He sat across the plexi-glass with his eyes trained on the phone. He waited rather impatiently. Eventually a buzzer sounded, and Kayla came through a pair of double doors on the other side. She was in shackles, and being escorted by two uniforms. Lassiter had to hold back the snide grin that threatened to overcome his features – now THAT was justice.

Lassiter and Kayla lifted their phones at the same time. "You've lost weight." Lassiter paid her a cruel compliment.

"Yeah whatever." Kayla spat. "You didn't come here to make small talk. Out with it fag cop."

"You kiss your mother with that mouth." Lassiter grumbled a bit. "Dave Kensingston." Lassiter said. "Does that name sound familiar to you?"

"The shit?" Kayla said. "No. It doesn't."

"Aw." Lassiter said. "Well from what I gather he's a nice guy – recently married in case you didn't know. Only his new wife Renee was stabbed in the throat. Like your brother."

"I don't give a shit." Kayla said. "I've never met the girl."

"Maybe you'd recognize her maiden name?" Lassiter tried. "Renee Claire."

"Can't say I do." Kayla said. "You're barking up the wrong tree."

"Alright." Lassiter said. "There was a second victim. Nora Jones. She was a bridesmaid."

"I don't know her." Kayla said. "None of these people matter to me."

"Okay." At this point Lassiter was pulling out a pad of paper; the paper had every name of the bridal party written down. Lassiter held the paper up to the glass. "What about any of these people."

"Margaret." Kayla then answered. "Margaret Argeneau."

Margaret Argeneau was the first name on the list.

"Relationship?" Lassiter demanded.

"She's a member of my church." Kayla said simply. "A little mental though, she's been on crazy pills since she was 13. A temper that one. Worse than mine." At that Kayla grinned – and actually laughed a little. "Oh yeah, I'd check on her first. _Especially_ if your psychic is involved." Her grin widened.

"Whether or not he's involved is none of your business." Lassiter snapped a bit. "Care to remember that. He's none of your business. Not now. Not ever." Lassiter kept his voice stern.

"Fine." Kayla said. "He's none of my business. So I'm just going to tell you 'hypothetically' that if he's involved you'll see to it to get him out and soon. Margaret's been dodging cops since she was a kid. She's ruthless, especially if her meds get screwed up and she's off her rocker. Your little psychic will go damn in flames if he tries to take her on. Hypothetically."

Lassiter couldn't help but grip the phone uncomfortably tight. He couldn't tell if Kayla was telling the truth or screwing with him. He hung up, and stood, having heard enough. He motioned to the two guards that he was done and made his leave.

When he was outside, he tried calling Shawn right away to give him the name, but when Shawn failed to answer Lassiter had to assume he was busy. Damn.

Busy? Yes, and getting just as much information as Lassiter did. The bridal party all arrived – say for one Margaret Argeneau. Everyone who arrived was still clearly upset with the whole situation, yet they all seemed to share the same feelings.

"Margaret's never been quite right."

"She always loved Dave."

"Never got along with Renee."

"Took a lot of medications."

After an hour of talking to everyone; Randall, Shawn, and Gus had no choice but to seek Margaret out. The three were currently cramped in Randall's car.

"Margaret Argeneau." Randall said. "26 years old, 5' ''6, 130 pounds – you're not going to believe this."

"What?" Gus asked.

"I pulled up her information; she's got a lengthy record. Grand theft auto, assault, possession of illegal Narcotics. She was however acquitted of every charge."

"How is that possible?" Gus didn't believe it.

Shawn put two and two together in his head. "Anyone can get away with anything if a psych analysis says you're unfit to be held accountable for your own actions."

"You're spot on Spencer." Randall said. "Dr. Zasio of a program called Helping Hands turned in a full report excusing Margaret of all her actions. She was sent to rehab for the narcotics, and even joined a congregation."

"Let me guess." Shawn held his hand to his temple and hummed. "First Reformed Church?"

"Yeah.." Randall said. "How did you?"

"Nevermind." Shawn said. He wasn't about to say he had a hunch it was the same congregation Kayla had been a part of. "Where do we find her?"

"Last listed address is Santa Barbara." Randall said then.

"Of course it is." Shawn said. "So let's hit the road."

At that Gus got out of the car. "I'm taking my car." Gus said. "On the off chance we don't come back to Coral Haven tonight."

"Sounds like a plan." Shawn said, and he excused himself from Randall's car. Randall giving them the address of Margaret's house.

"If you get there before me, wait outside." Randall said. "We go in together."

"Okay." The three split up, and were soon making their way back to Santa Barbara.

Shawn and Gus were the first to arrive; the house was small and on a pretty nice street. Shawn and Gus got out of the car and made themselves comfortable, leaning against the blueberry – Shawn bringing out his phone. "Missed call." Shawn said. He saw that it was from Lassie and grinned. He dialled his boyfriend's number. Lassiter answered on the first ring.

"Margaret Argeneau." Lassiter said.

"Is a murder suspect." Shawn finished.

"Yes." Lassiter said. "How did you know?"

"I'm standing with Gus outside of her house." Shawn said.

"You're what? !" Lassiter suddenly had a horrible flashback. "Why? !"

"We're waiting on Randy cop." Shawn assured him. "Everyone in the wedding party seemed to agree Margaret was a nut bar. Margaret was the only one who didn't show up for questioning. We pulled her address. So we're in Santa Barbara."

"Okay." Lassiter breathed a bit. "Shawn please, please don't go in there until detective Peterson arrives."

"You have my word." Shawn said. He then had to ask. "Lassie how did you know about Margaret?"

On his end of the phone Lassiter blushed. "I – I may have gone to see Kayla. Even though I wasn't supposed to."

"You sly dog you." Shawn joked. "I take it Margaret was the only name she recognized?"

"Yeah." Lassiter said. "They were part-"

"Of the same congregation." Shawn answered. "I know. We have that basis covered. Randy cop was actually planning on paying her a visit later too."

"Right." Lassiter relaxed a bit, he was starting to have his doubts about the CHPD but Randall was suddenly pulling through and being less of a dick. Lassiter made a mental note to knock on wood. "I'll see you later?" Lassiter finally asked changing the subject.

"Depending on how this goes." Shawn said. "I'll call you when I can."

They hung up just as Randall was pulling up. He exited his cruiser with Officer Jenny in tow.

"Hi guys!" Officer Jenny greeted happily. "Looks like we're working together today!"

"Wicked." Shawn gave her the thumbs up. "How'd examining the elevator go?"

"No leads." Officer Jenny said. "The scene was clear, so I had to hand it over to internal affairs."

"Aw." Gus said. "So that freed you up for this." Gus said.

"Exactly!" Officer Jenny said happily. "Let's do this." She encouraged.

Randall seemed to like her enthusiasm and the two were approaching the doors, knocking on it gently.

"Ms. Argeneau?" Randall hollered a bit. "CHPD can we have a word with you please?"

Shawn wasn't surprised when there was no answer. After a moment of hesitation, Randall tried the door. "Let's go Jenny." Randall said, and the two had their guns out standing back to back as they prepared to go into the house and clear it. "Shawn and Gus -don't follow until I say."

Shawn gave a mock salute, and Gus just rolled his eyes. Randall and Jenny stepped into the house one after the other in perfect unison. Leaving Shawn and Gus to wait for their signal, when it came Randall popped his head out the door looking grimm. "It's clear, but you two are going to want to brace yourselves."

Shawn and Gus exchanged uneasy glances before following Randall into the house.

"Oh. There he is." After they passed through the threshold, the first room they came to was the living room. It was nicely decoration – except for the dead groom laid out on the couch. Sure enough a knife was sticking defiantly from his neck. However his position wasn't that of a man brutally taken down. He was laid out peacefully with his arms crossed over his chest.

"It seems Margaret really did love him." Randall commented. "Now finding her and taking her in."

Shawn in that instance saw something small; it was a tiny blood drop on the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. Of course anyone else would've missed it. "Whoa..." Shawn forced himself to sway opening his eyes wide. "I'm getting something..."

Randall quirked a brow. "What is it?"

"The kitchen." Shawn said, he held his hand to the kitchen. "We need to go to the kitchen."

"Detective Peterson and I cleared the kitchen." Officer Jenny said. "There's nothing there."

"The kitchen!" Shawn insisted, and he threw himself in that direction with Gus in tow. Officer Jenny and Randall followed suit. When they got to the kitchen, it was empty like Officer Jenny had said.

"See?" She said. "All clear. Are you sure your vision is pointing you in the right direction?"

Shawn glanced around, he knew something or someone bleeding had been in here. He kept looking, until his eyes landed on a panel door that was open slightly. Shawn could just feel a bit of a draft. "There." Shawn pointed.

Randall obliged and went over to the door opening it, only to reveal a tightly packed pantry. "It's a food closet." Randall said. "Spencer – I knew it. You're just grabbing for it now. Just fess up – you're not actually a psychic are you?"

"Shawn." Gus said. "It is just a closet; maybe your visions are pointing you in the wrong direction?"

"Yeah – right." Shawn said. He went for the closet. The shelves were packed full of food, but regardless Shawn started to feel around.

"She's hiding in the beans." Randall said with a bit of bite. "Go get her tiger."

Shawn rolled his eyes – up until five minutes ago Randall was treating him like a co-worker, but now he was just reminding Shawn why he didn't like him in the first place. "Patience Randy cop." Shawn responded. Shawn then noted the bottom shelf was elevated enough he could crouch under it. He squatted down, and shuffled himself under the shelf.

"Found it!" Shawn was so pleased with himself, and he looked up from under the shelf at the other three. "These wood panels are hallow -there's a basement, or at least a crawl space under here."

"Right." Randall huffed a bit, and couldn't believe Shawn was curled up so tight under the shelf. "Prove it."

"Gladly." Shawn said. "Listen." Shawn lifted his foot up as best as he could from his crouched position and stomped it down. He was expecting to prove his point by just getting them to hear the sound of the wood being shoved against air. He was wrong. All the wood under Shawn cracked. It happened too fast for him to get away. It all fell away and Shawn fell with it, vanishing from the kitchen.

"Shawn!" Gus was the first to react, jumping towards where his friend had been – now nothing but a hole. He looked down, the hole leading down to a whole other room. Shawn at the very bottom, not moving. "Shawn!"

Shawn was down for the count, the wood had cracked and he had fallen down a few good feet. It was a jump where if he had been prepared to make it, he probably would've been fine, but he couldn't brace himself. He hit his head on landing and was knocked out.

He came through not too long after, only when he opened his eyes he wasn't trapped in a basement anymore. He was in a hospital bed. Flashbacks of ten months ago hitting him hard, he shot up in a panic calling for the first name that came to mind. "Lassie!"

"Right here." Lassiter was at his side immediately getting him to calm down and lay back down. The detective looked worse than Shawn felt.

Shawn started to re-collect what he had been doing before he woke up in the hospital. "Margaret Argeneau – she killed Dave Kensington."

"Yes she did." Lassiter agreed, and he sat down next to Shawn's bed lightly running his hand over Shawn's brow to soothe him. "She then moved to the basement and shot herself."

"W- what?" Shawn turned his head to look at Lassiter. "She's dead too?"

"When you fell." Lassiter explained. "Detective Randall and Officer Jenny had no choice but to call the SBPD to help you get you out. I came with O'Hara. Needless to say, I gained a few more grey hairs today Spencer. Way to go."

Shawn grinned a bit giving a light "Sorry – but on the bright side grey is sexy."

"Ha." Lassiter said gently.

"Okay moving on." Shawn said. "So you and Jules show up – then what happened?"

"We got you out." Lassiter said. "It took a little while, and we had to tear out the shelf so we could lower a ladder properly, but we got you out. But while we were down there fishing you out we found Margaret's body, lying just a few feet away from yours. There was a bullet wound in her head."

"Did you find a gun?" Shawn asked.

"Still clenched in her hand." Lassiter said. "The case got ruled as a murder-suicide. It's over Shawn."

"I -..." Shawn didn't feel right about that. "That's fine – I guess, so I guess I can stay here."

"Yes." Lassiter nearly insisted. "The doctors want you here for one more night to make sure you're okay, and then I get to take you home."

"If the case is over." Shawn pointed out. "Then I can go back to my apartment."

"Theoretically yes." Lassiter agreed. "But after the scare you gave me? You owe me Spencer. I'm cashing in."

Shawn smiled playfully. "Cashing in huh?" He scratched his chin a bit. "I think I know what you're looking to get."

"Yeah?" Lassiter was on board, a rare bit of playful mischief twinkling behind his eyes. That rare twinkle always making Shawn feel 100% better. "Tell me psychic, what pre-tell is it that I'm after?"

"You want me to-" Shawn started, and in true fashion he was cut off by his dad.

"Make a full recovery." Henry's voice was stern, and Lassiter sighed.

"How did I know?" Lassiter turned to face the older man. "I drop my guard for two seconds."

"Your first mistake." Henry said.

"Hi dad." Shawn groaned.

"Shawn." Henry said. "How do you feel?"

"Better dad." Shawn promised. "I'm just being kept here on observation. Out by tomorrow."

"Good." Henry sounded pleased. "And this whole Coral Haven thing is over?"

"I guess so." Shawn said. "The supposed murderer shot herself in the head. I guess all that's left now is paper work."

"Which I'll deal with." Lassiter promised. "The case ended in Santa Barbara so even though I wasn't on it, I still get to fill out a correspondence report for our lovely Chief Anderson."

"That blows." Shawn commended. "Well hey, my dad's here and I'm guessing Gus isn't too far off."

"He's in the waiting room with the others." Henry said.

"Others?" Shawn and Lassiter said at the same time.

"Juliet." Henry started. "Detective Peterson and that little Rookie you told me about." Henry laughed a bit. "You were right; she does look like a squirrel."

"Well it looks like I have tons of visitors." Shawn said. "Lassie, how about. You go for now? Finish your paperwork, the sooner you get it done, the sooner you can come back and keep me company."

"I can't say I like the idea of leaving." Lassiter commented. "But you're right, the sooner it's done the sooner I can come back here."

"I'm looking forward to it." Shawn said.

Lassiter sat up and leaned over to give Shawn a kiss goodbye, to which Henry cleared his throat in pure warning. Lassiter froze in place and wasn't sure what to do, instead of giving Shawn the kiss he wanted to, he ruffled Shawn's hair instead. "Bye Shawn."

Lassiter left the room in a hurry.

"Amazing." Shawn said. "He fears you."

"Yeah." Henry looked proud. "Until he's man enough to kiss you anyway – I'm going to torture him."

"Evil." Shawn insisted. "Absolutely evil."

"Yeah." Henry said. "Where the hell do you think you got it from?"

"Mom?" Shawn joked.

"Dad." Henry corrected. "...and I guess your uncle Jack."

"Ha!" Shawn laughed loud at that.

Twenty minutes passed, and Shawn had small visits with everyone in the waiting room. The longest one being with Gus, and Jules -which just evened out to Jules fawning over him like a mother hen again, and Gus joking with him about how the resulting scar on his temple would make him look badass.

By the time they left, it was just Randall and Officer Jenny coming in to make sure he was indeed fine.

"So the case is over?" Shawn asked lightly.

"So far." Officer Jenny sounded pleased. "You're okay though – right?"

"Perfectly fine." Shawn said. "Not feeling excited for you two though, paper work."

"The bane of an officer." Randall said. "Spencer I owe you an apology."

"What?" Shawn snapped to attention.

"Your abilities." Randall said. "They're amazing. I never would've found that crawlspace. I'm just sorry you had to get hurt to prove me wrong."

"It wasn't that bad." Shawn said. "Compared to ten months ago, this was a piece of cake. There was also the time I got shot in the shoulder, and the time I was poisoned, oh Randy cop I could go on and on." Shawn gave himself a mental pat on the back. "I'm invincible man."

"Damn." Officer Jenny commended him. "You are a tough one."

"Exactly." Shawn was so pleased with himself. "So the case is over. I'm excited to get out here and have things go back to normal. It was – nice working with you guys."

"Yeah." Randall said. "I guess it kind of was. I still hate you with a burning passion though; stay the hell away from Marcus." Randall's tone was a bit joking, but Shawn could tell there was still a grudge there.

"Gladly." Shawn promised. His phone then rang. Shawn turned to his nightstand and grabbed it, seeing it was Lassie. "Lassie?"

"Hey." Lassiter said lowly. "Um – something came up. I won't be coming back tonight, is that okay?"

"Uh..." Shawn didn't exactly like the idea of his boyfriend leaving him in the hospital alone. Sure he had Gus but still – wasn't it like Lassiter's obligation or something? He guessed not entirely. "Yeah sure – everything okay?"

"Oh." Lassiter said. "Everything's fine. I just, I'll be there tomorrow okay?"

"O – okay." Shawn said. "Bye Lassie."

"Bye." Lassiter hung up, and actually slammed the phone down onto his counter in a bit of a rage. He currently hated his life, hated Shawn, and HATED the CHPD.

Upon arriving at his house Lassiter had found an envelope taped to his door. It was just a plain white envelope, but when he had opened it, he lifted out a single photo. A black and white still of Shawn straddling Randall – in an elevator no less! It seemed 'strangers in the elevator' was Shawn's favourite game, and one he didn't need to go into witness protection to play.

Lassiter was furious – and hurt. He was NOT going back to the hospital that night, and depending on how angry he stayed he might not go the next day either. He might drive to Coral Haven instead and punch Randall as hard as he could.


	7. Ignore It

**A/N: **An update finally! You'll have to excuse the delay; I really wasn't sure how I wanted this chapter to go. However I figured it out and I hope you all like it! Now fair warning –

**ADULT SCENE DEAD AHEAD!**

I could possibly get in trouble for this chapter, so enjoy it while you can! As always reviews are encouraged, I look forward to hearing from all of you!

Lots of Love!

~Matilda.

**Ignore It. **

"Face it, he's not coming."

Gus tried to talk some sense into Shawn, as Shawn was determined to sit right where he was. The two were plopped in the waiting room of the hospital, Shawn was good to go but Lassiter hadn't showed up yet like he said he would.

"Soon Gus." Shawn insisted.

"Shawn." Gus said. "You called him 5 times; he's probably really busy at work. Let's just go."

Shawn groaned, and was beginning to feel a little iffed. It wasn't like Lassie to forget something as important like a boyfriend in the hospital, but he supposed Gus was right. "Okay we're going."

After they left Shawn called Lassiter multiple times throughout the rest of the morning. Lassiter must've been really busy all day because Shawn even called him at the station, but detective Lassiter wasn't available.

"Can we please go back to work?"

Juliet stared at Lassiter over the table and took yet another sip from her coffee. She hoped he'd say yes, but wasn't surprised when he just shook his head.

"Not until I get to the bottom of this picture." He regarded the black and white still of Shawn and detective Peterson in the elevator.

"Maybe they got stuck." Juliet tried.

"Shawn does a lot of things." Lassiter said. "But I don't think he'd randomly jump on a guy if he got stuck. Something else is happening in this picture and I don't like it."

"Then ask him!" Juliet insisted. "Carlton, why don't you just ask him? Seriously."

"I." Lassiter started, he felt stupid for saying, but he did eventually get the words out. "I'm scared that the answer might be what I'm afraid of."

"Tough luck." Juliet said then, she had a stern tone. "At this point, you'd kind of deserve it."

"You're crazy." Lassiter accused.

"No but you are." Juliet huffed. "You don't leave a guy in the hospital, reject his calls, then try to avoid him because he MIGHT have cheated on you. It's not fair. I might be your partner, but I'm your friend too – and I'm Shawn's friend, and as both your friends I can honestly say you're acting like a jerk."

"Okay." Lassiter sounded defeated, but soon his ears perked a bit and he gave Juliet a thoughtful look. "You like me like a friend?"

Juliet smiled, but then rolled her eyes before giving a friendly chuckle. "Call Shawn or I will cut you."

"Whoa." Lassiter said. "You've been spending way too much time with Guster."

"Good." Juliet smiled even wider. "Now – you're calling him?"

"Yes." Lassiter said. "Just as soon as we get back to the station."

"Thank god!" Juliet exclaimed, and she was the first one to get up and start grabbing all her stuff. "I miss my work computer so much, paper work by hand? Not fun."

By the time they got back to the station, McNab had announced that they missed Shawn by ten minutes.

"I'm sure if you called him, he'd come back." McNab said. "Try it."

"Thanks." Lassiter said, and he moved to his desk ready to call the fake psychic, only to be stopped by Henry.

"Carlton." Henry greeted. "Welcome back."

"Uh – thank you Henry." Lassiter said a bit awkwardly, he hoped Henry would just leave it at that – of course he didn't.

"I saw Shawn." Henry said. "Seemed upset about something."

"Oh." Lassiter said. "That's unfortunate."

"You're telling me." Henry said. "So why are you avoiding him?"

"Oh – I." Lassiter didn't want to bullshit the older man; instead he just pulled out the photo and showed Henry right up front.

"I see." Henry said. "Well Shawn has always been adventurous."

"You think he cheated?" Lassiter asked.

"Of course not." Henry said. "I think you're a moron."

"Ah." Lassiter said. "Well I am about to call him."

"See that you do." Henry said. He walked away without another word.

Lassiter had to keep from swallowing, Henry's tone was threatening and Lassiter didn't like to think of what would happen to him if he actually hurt Shawn. Lassiter imagined Henry wouldn't think twice about leaving the detective somewhere dark and cold.

Finally getting to his phone, Lassiter took it into a filing room to get some privacy before dialling Shawn's number. Lassiter wasn't surprised when Shawn answered on the first ring.

"I'm mad at you." Was the first thing Shawn said.

"I know." Lassiter immediately feeling apologetic.

"At the hospital." Shawn continued. "You left me, at the hospital."

"I know." Lassiter's stomach dropped, he really didn't like where this conversation was going.

"When I get back to Santa Barbara you can tell me why." Shawn finished.

Lassiter blinked. "You're not in Santa Barbara?"

"Nope!" Shawn said. "Gus and I are heading to Coral Haven to pick up our cheques from the Kensington case."

"Oh." Lassiter said. "Well that shouldn't take too long?"

"Well." Shawn said. "Thankfully, when I recovered, I was still able to function. So I am on my way to Coral Haven to get paid, then Gus and I are staying for dinner."

"Dinner?" Lassiter repeated. "Why are you staying for dinner?"

"It was Randy cop's idea." Shawn said. "As a 'hurray the case is over' so Gus and I are staying for dinner."

"You're having dinner with him?" Lassiter suppressed the urge to growl.

"And Gus." Shawn said. "He's being nice to me; I'm not opposed to being nice. You should come join us, and then we can talk in the car on the way back -get this silly thing over with."

"No." Lassiter declined right away. "Randy-cop as you so eloquently call him is currently the last person I want to share a meal with."

"Alright." Shawn said. "Don't come."

"You're still going." Lassiter huffed a bit.

"Yes!" Shawn snapped a bit. "Gus and I are still going. Then I'm going home."

"I thought you were coming over to talk?" Lassiter said.

"Oh no." Shawn said. "I will come see you, when whatever you've got wedged between your bottom cheeks die, then we can talk."

"We're talking now." Lassiter said a bit sternly, he stopped thinking about two minutes prior to this point.

"God no." Shawn said. "You ditched me - at the hospital, avoided my calls all day, then promptly called me resulting in an argument, and I STILL don't know why. You have lost all rights to say anything to me until I want you to say it. So tomorrow 8pm, my place."

Lassiter's stomach dropped and he suddenly realized he was being unreasonable. "8PM Tomorrow." Lassiter repeated.

"Don't call me before then." Shawn instructed. He then hung up. Shawn turned to Gus who was looking very uncomfortable in the driver's seat. "Did I sound too harsh?"

"...Nah." Gus said. "Let him cool off, and think about what he's going to say. Now remember – no yelling, no wild accusations, no name calling. None of that tomorrow. You're in a grown up relationship now Shawn."

"Thank you Dr. Phil." Shawn joked. "Anything else you'd like to add?"

"If it ends badly, call me." Gus added.

"It won't." Shawn said, though he sounded more like he was trying to convince himself. "It won't."

"Alright." Gus said. "We're here."

"Cool." Shawn sounded a bit distant. He and Gus exited the car and made their way into the station, where Randall was surprisingly in the middle of saying goodbye to Marcus.

"Thanks for lunch." Randall was in the middle of saying.

"No problem." Marcus replied. The two exchanged a kiss. "See you tonight after dinner?"

"I'll be the guy that smells like gun powder and garlic." Randall grinned a bit.

"My favourite." Marcus returned the smile, and the two kissed again, Marcus then turned on his heel to make his leave, only to see Shawn and Gus. "Hey guys! Congrats on the case!"

"Hey – thanks." Gus said politely.

"Get a room." Shawn joked. Marcus just stuck out his tongue and kept walking.

"Guys." Randall greeted. "You're here."

"For our money." Shawn reminded him. "Gus and I also want to do some site seeing before dinner."

"Oh." Randall said. "In that case, you should go to the mall and check out California's largest stuffed monkey."

Shawn's face blanked. "What?" This was followed immediately by. "How come no one told me there was a giant stuffed monkey in this town – Gus we have to go!"

"Why does Coral Haven have a giant stuffed monkey?" Gus asked.

"It's an attraction at the mall." Randall said. "It's in a giant glass case and everything."

"Huh." Gus said. "Sounds fun."

"Just fun?" Shawn asked. "Amazing! More like it."

"We're heading upstairs now." Gus said.

"Yes." Shawn said. "Money."

The two made their way up the stairs to the Chief's office. As they got there, they were just in time to see Officer Jenny leaving with tears streaming down her eyes. She saw Shawn and Gus and suddenly looked horrified rather than sad. She lowered her head and moved passed the two at an accelerated pace.

"What do you think happened to her?" Gus asked quietly.

"I'm thinking fired." Shawn said lowly. "Her badge was gone."

"Odd." Gus said. "She must've known though. The other day when she grabbed me to talk, she asked if Psych was hiring."

"Without me?" Shawn looked a bit offended. "What did you say?"

"I said no." Gus answered.

"Good call." Shawn said.

"Are you two done chit chatting?" Chief Anderson called from his office. "I haven't got all day."

"Right." Shawn and Gus moved into the office where Chief Anderson was currently writing something down.

"You two did good." Chief Anderson commended. "I was genuinely impressed."

"Thank you." Shawn said. "What about Officer Jenny?"

"You mean Sandra Jenny." The Chief corrected. "As of noon today she was off the force."

"Oh." Gus said. "Why?"

"Mr. Spencer was recently in hospital, was he not?" Chief Anderson asked.

"Yeah." Shawn confirmed. "I was."

"From what I understand, you obtained your injury because Sandra failed to clear the kitchen."

"It wasn't an obvious place." Shawn explained. "I had to crawl under a pantry."

"None the less." Chief Anderson said. "We take care of our own here. Sandra failed to do so, thus she failed at being an officer here in Coral Haven. I'm sure pending review a lower grade station will be more than happy to have her."

"Understood." Gus said. He really didn't feel like arguing with the man.

"Mr. Spencer." Chief Anderson said. "Could I have a private word please?"

"Um, sure." Shawn said. He then watched as Gus respectively stood up and took his leave to the stairwell.

"Sixteen to Twenty Two." Chief Anderson said. "That's your average."

"Average?" Shawn said.

"Per year." Chief Anderson continued. "Every year you solve between 16 to 22 cases."

"This is true." Shawn said. "Crime is a funny thing, sometimes it doesn't happen."

"And when it doesn't, you must struggle quite a bit." Chief Anderson said.

"I've had my moments." Shawn said. "I don't really think of it too often."

"How would you like some stability?" Chief Anderson then asked. Which threw Shawn way off.

"What?" Shawn asked. Followed very closely by another. "What?"

"Our Consulting Office." Chief Anderson said.

"You have a consulting office?" Shawn cut in.

"Yes." Chief Anderson said. "And recently, it suffered a loss. I'm looking for someone to fill the spot, you proved yourself to be useful. I'm offering you the job."

"Um." Shawn said right away. "I'm running Psych."

"You can still have Psych." Chief Anderson said. "It's just a consulting job; you'll make a five figure salary, plus extra for whatever cases you solve. You don't get any health benefits because you're not an officer or a detective, but your pension plan will be nice and shiny, and if your little heart desires, you only have to come into Coral Haven when you're called onto a job."

"Oh." Shawn said. It sounded alright, but there was a catch. There had to be. "That sounds simple enough."

"Think it over." Chief Anderson said. "Let me know by Monday."

"Monday." Shawn said. "I can do that."

"Monday!" Shawn repeated to Gus a few minutes later.

"This is an easy one." Gus said. "No."

"Well, not so much no." Shawn said.

"Say what?" Gus said. "Shawn you HAVE a job."

"I do." Shawn said. "We do, but he said I could keep Psych, so it doesn't really affect you."

"Okay." Gus said. "You're keeping Psych, great! But what are you giving up?"

"Giving up?" Shawn said. "I don't understand."

"You're being offered a permanent position." Gus explained. "Sure it's just a consulting job, but based on Chief Anderson's stance, you'll probably have to sign a contract ensuring that CHPD is the only police squad you work for."

"Ohhh..." Shawn said. "That could be bad."

"Well, you have until Monday to figure out how to say no." Gus encouraged a bit. "Until then we can go home and you can sleep on it."

"Home?" Shawn said. "I thought we were doing dinner?"

"No." Gus said. "Randall called me, said something came up between him and Marcus. Cancelled. We're good to go."

"Ah." Shawn said. "Can we at least go see the giant monkey?"

"Another time." Gus said. "I'm actually kind of tired, and the sooner you get back, the sooner you can talk to Lassiter."

"Right." Shawn's stomach dropped a bit. "Gus?"

"Yeah?" Gus answered.

"I don't wanna." Shawn whined a bit.

Gus huffed and muttered something about Shawn being a baby before driving back to Santa Barbara. Without Shawn's permission he drove straight to Lassiter's house.

"Gus!" Shawn complained. "I said I don't want to. I told him 8PM tomorrow."

"And I said today." Gus said. "Now get out of my car." Gus said.

"What if I don't want to?" Shawn argued.

"I will beat you." Gus threatened. He gave Shawn an angry face. Shawn got out of the car as fast as he could before Gus sped away.

"THAT'S ILLEGAL!" Shawn shouted after the car. He then pouted and turned to the door, which was opening, as Lassiter had heard Shawn yell.

"No dinner?" Lassiter asked right away – he didn't look happy.

"Something came up." Shawn said, and he went to the threshold to meet Lassiter. "Letting me in?" Shawn asked. Lassiter just nodded and let Shawn in.

"What happened to 8 tomorrow?" Lassiter asked.

"I don't think it matters." Shawn said. "Now come on, let's just get this over with. Why didn't you come back to the hospital?"

"Um." Lassiter said. "I, I received an anonymous tip, that you might have been unfaithful to me with Detective Peterson."

"Oh." Shawn said. He then started power laughing. "Randy Cop? ! Really? ! Lassie, you should've known better then that!"

"You were supposed to be having dinner with him right now." Lassiter reminded him.

"With Gus too." Shawn reminded him. "Lassie, the closest I've ever gotten to Randy Cop was when the elevator got stuck in the police station and I landed him. It was actually kind of brutal."

"The elevator. " Lassiter repeated. "What happened?"

"It got stuck." Shawn said. "Then it started jerking, and we weren't sure if it was going to stay in one place. I got anxious so I got Randall to give me a boost up so I could try crawling out the top to the next floor. Right when he hoisted me up the elevator started moving again and we fell."

"Oh." Lassiter said. He could feel his face turning beat red; he made a mental note to apologize to Juliet the next time he saw her. "So this picture then." He then moved to his coffee table grabbing the black and white picture and handed it to Shawn. "This is from when you fell?"

Shawn looked at the picture in a bit of shock. "Yes. It is - who did you say gave this to you?"

"It was taped to my door the other day." Lassiter said. "I really don't know."

"I see." Shawn said. He took a breath. Suddenly furious. "You didn't dust it for prints, or ask me right away, you just – went straight to 'Shawn cheated' didn't you?"

"I." Lassiter said. "I reacted poorly."

"No shit!" Shawn said. "Do you trust me at all?"

"I do!" Lassiter said. "I just really didn't know what to think."

"A mysterious photo of your boyfriend appears on your door, and you suddenly don't know what to think? ! You're a cop Lassie! It's your job to figure stuff like this out!"

"I know." Lassiter said. "Look, it was a mistake okay? I know you're not cheating."

"You still left me!" Shawn said. "You told me you'd come get me, and you just – let something like this stop you! Do you know how long it took Gus to convince me to leave with him? !" Shawn stopped to catch his breath. "Then all day, I kept calling you and calling you. Over a picture!"

"Yes!" Lassiter said. "Over a damn picture, look Shawn I'm not trying to hurt you. It was dumb alright. Look, the case is over, I know I was wrong, I'm sorry. Can we please just forget about this whole thing? No more Coral Haven."

"That parts a little tricky." Shawn said.

"Why?" Lassiter said. "It's over now isn't it?"

"I was kind of offered a permanent position there." Shawn said.

"Whoa – what?" Lassiter said.

"Chief Anderson, he wants to give me a permanent consulting gig. He wants an answer by Monday." Shawn said. "I wouldn't have to move or anything and I'd be able to keep Psych but..."

"But?" Lassiter asked.

"I'll probably be asked to sign a contract ensuring Coral Haven is the only police squad I do work for."

"But Santa Barbara is your police squad." Lassiter said promptly. "It has been for years."

"Santa Barbara isn't offering me a five figure salary and a pension plan." Shawn said. "It's a grown up job." Shawn said. "I'm kind of considering it."

"No you're not." Lassiter said right away. "Shawn that's – a big change."

"A change that could be good for me." Shawn said. "I told Gus I'd say no, but I really don't know."

"Say no." Lassiter urged. "I don't want you working in Coral Haven."

"Why not?" Shawn said. "It'd not like I'd be moving there."

"Because if you're working in Coral Haven, then you're probably working with him." Lassiter said, but he quickly bit his tongue. Unfortunately Shawn caught it right away.

"Him, being detective Peterson." Shawn said. "You don't want me near him."

"I didn't say that." Lassiter said.

"Yes. You did." Shawn said. "You really don't trust me." Shawn said.

"I do!" Lassiter said. "I just – I don't want you around him."

"Why?" Asked Shawn. "Tell me why?"

"I don't have a reason." Lassiter breathed.

"Other then you don't trust me." Shawn said. "And because you don't trust me, you leave me at hospitals and ignore my calls. Lassie, do you want to break up?"

"What? !" Lassiter snapped to attention. "Not at all!"

"You have a funny way of showing it." Shawn said, and he turned to leave.

"Shawn I don't want to break up!" Lassiter yelled. It actually made Shawn stop and turn back around, though he had to yell back.

"Then what the hell do you want? !" Shawn snapped.

"I want to get married!"

Shawn's eyes widened. "Mar-ried?"

"Yes." Lassiter said catching his breath. "So much, Shawn I love you."

"God help me Lassie, I love you too."

As soon as the words left Shawn's mouth, he couldn't take them back. Not that Shawn wanted to. Barely a moment of silence passed before Shawn with tears running down his cheeks jumped into Lassiter's arms kissing him for all he was worth.

Lassiter kissed back, holding Shawn as close to him as he could. He couldn't believe how badly he had almost screwed this up. He was shaking with every kiss he and Shawn shared, so much so he could barely feel that Shawn was shaking all the same.

Their lips didn't part, but their hands did start moving, and frantically clothes were being tugged at. Shawn again ruined yet another one of Lassiter's shirts as one by one buttons got ripped out, falling to the floor and rolling away uselessly, followed very closely by the silk of Lassiter's tie. Shawn's shirt was surprisingly weak, as with a good pull, it ripped coming off of Shawn in shreds.

The couple were on auto pilot, neither one of them wanting to let go of the moment. They moved in unison, first crashing into a wall, then knocking over a lamp, then knocking a few other knick knacks over. Sloppily they made their way into Lassiter's bedroom. The bed creaked under their combined weight, and it was only then they stopped to take heavy breaths. But it wasn't over. They kissed again, and the world around them fell away.

Shawn was lost in this incredible feeling he couldn't get a grasp of. The man who made him feel most special, had told him that he loved him. Had told him he wanted to marry him. Shawn surrendered completely, throwing his arms over his head letting Lassiter touch him and pull him closer between kisses.

His. Shawn was completely his. Lassiter couldn't believe his stupid luck. There were stars behind his eyes, and they all spelled Shawn's name. A wave of possessiveness came over him, and the detective couldn't stop himself from touching Shawn all over. Hands touching bare skin on Shawn's torso, every little stroke elicited the most beautiful pleading noises Shawn had ever made. He wanted this as badly as Lassiter. They needed each other. Lassiter could feel his arousal growing more urgent, but it was so much more than that. He pressed himself against Shawn, and Shawn could feel every inch from under the fabric of Lassiter's trousers. The weight was hot, and it made Shawn's desire grow even stronger. He pulled his lips away from Lassiter's to look up at him with shining eyes.

"Please Lassie."

Lassiter didn't need to be asked twice, his hands easily found the buckle of Shawn's jeans, and undid them like he had a million times before. He pulled on them, making sure to take Shawn's boxers with them, and he kept pulling until Shawn was completely naked under him, and glistening with sweat. It was all Lassiter could do to not finish in his own pants right then. He bent down giving Shawn another long and lazy kiss, Shawn's arms wrapping around Lassiter's back to support himself as Lassiter worked on his own pants. Lassiter's full length pressed up against Shawn's inner thigh, it was warm and inviting. Shawn moaned and pressed himself tighter against the detective.

Shawn's body felt like silk under Lassiter's, and Lassiter revelled in the way Shawn fit so perfectly against him. Shawn's moans only making Lassiter want to be closer. He lifted Shawn's knees, parting them. Lassiter bent forward, pressing his lips against the side of Shawn's neck. Shawn reacted immediately, his breath hitching, and his moans becoming a little higher. Lassiter's hand snaked down between Shawn's legs then, and a single finger pressing into Shawn's entrance. Shawn writhed upward and cried out Lassiter's name a little louder than necessary.

"Carlton!"

Lassiter bit down on Shawn's neck then, and pressed his finger further. Shawn's eyes rolled back, his body was on fire. Lassiter was teasing him with the way he moved his finger, he didn't need to be stretched, and he didn't need to be coaxed. He wanted it. Lassiter licked down to Shawn's collar bone, and Shawn started to beg.

"Carlton...Carlton..please.."

Lassiter finally gave in; he pulled his finger away, pressing both his hands on Shawn's hips pulling him downward. Shawn lifted his knees as high as needed to give Lassiter room. They shared a long heated kiss, and Lassiter moved his hips, pressing himself into Shawn slowly. Shawn's legs turned into jelly and he moaned into Lassiter, wrapping his legs tightly around the detective's waist. Lassiter shivered, and let out a growl. Shawn felt amazing wrapped around him. He wanted to lose himself inside of Shawn completely; he started to move in slow deep thrusts, each one making both men cry out for each other.

Lassiter's intrusion was all Shawn could feel, shivers of electricity circulated his body, and he moved with the detective in perfect timing, pushing up just as Lassiter moved inward so that their pelvises touched. It was amazing. Shawn's nails dug into Lassiter's back as his pleasure heightened, the slight pain only making Lassiter move faster.

"Shawn...Shawn." Lassiter kept saying Shawn's name in a mantra, the way Shawn's muscles tightened and loosened around him driving him insane. Steadily his movements became harder and more frantic. He was so close to finishing, so close...

As soon as Lassiter started saying Shawn's name, Shawn's head started swimming. He loved Lassiter, it was too much. Every fibre of his being told him that this was going to last forever; there was no one else who could make Shawn feel this amazing. Another strong thrust from Lassiter, and the detective hit Shawn's sweet spot, Shawn cried out Lassiter's name as loud as he could, his body lurched and he let go, spilling himself onto his and Lassiter's stomachs.

Shawn's release was the extra push Lassiter needed. Shawn closed around him completely, locking him in. Lassiter soon followed in his climax, spilling himself against Shawn's sweet spot, having it spill out between them. It was a sticky mess, and when both men were dry, they collapsed on each other catching their breaths.

"Wow." Shawn said between breaths.

"Yeah..." Lassiter agreed. He lazily laid a kiss on Shawn's shoulder. "I know."

"We should get engaged every day." Shawn finished.

"Oh..." Lassiter needed to keep himself from giggling like an idiot at Shawn's current disposition. He failed and let the small laugh come. "Sure."

They held onto each other, not saying a word, but soon falling asleep. Only to be woken up again hours later by the sound of Shawn's phone.

"Mmm no..." Shawn groaned as his eyes opened lazily. "I really don't want to get that."

"Then don't." Lassiter said. "It's our first morning as an engaged couple, ignore it."

Shawn's phone finally stopped ringing.

"Thank god." Shawn breathed, and he curled up against his new fiancé to try to get more sleep. As soon as he got comfortable again, Lassiter's phone started ringing.

"Ignore it." Shawn repeated in a muffled voice. "It's our first morning as an engaged couple."

As soon as he said that, Lassiter and Shawn's phones started ringing at the same time. It seemed their attention was needed. Both men sat up and grabbed for their phones. Matching annoyed groans ringing out as they looked at their caller .

"It's Gus." Shawn said.

"O'Hara." Lassiter said. They both answered their phones.

"Gus?"

"O'Hara?"

There was a moment of silence, as both Gus and Juliet spoke on their ends; they seemed to finish talking in unison because Shawn and Lassiter reacted the same way at the same time.

"WHAT? !"


	8. Watched

**A/N: **Another chapter! Boo yeah! I had some extra time off so I thought I'd get some extra writing done! This chapter is a little shorter since I wrote it all in one day but I promise that it's worth it!

As always your lovely reviews are more than welcome whether they be of praise or constructive critiques!

I apologize for the amount of exclamation points in this authors note; I'm a little over tired! I'm totally going to bed after I post this!

Cheers!

~Matilda

**Watched**

"I can't believe it."

Shawn and Lassiter were both called to the Psych office only to reveal yet another murder. This one however was a little more gruesome then the others. In order to even see the body, Shawn had to push through a tarp the SBPD had put up to keep the public's prying eye away.

The groomsmen Shawn remembered -was Rylea Campbell. He was stabbed through the throat just like all the others, only this time aside from the knife still sticking through his throat, his hands were held up over his head, each one nailed to the door through the wrist. Shawn felt immediately sick, and as he exited the car he held down a considerable amount of bile as he went to meet Gus who looked just as ill.

"I knew it." Shawn said. "I knew the case wasn't over. Nailing that Margaret girl was too easy."

"I've been trying to call Detective Peterson, but he's not answering." Gus said. Shawn didn't say anything; he just looked around taking in all he could. It really wasn't pretty.

"Where's Jules?" Shawn asked then.

"She had to step away." Gus said then. "Felt sick."

"Ah." Shawn said. As the small expression left him, Lassiter came up behind the tarp taking in the scene.

"Oh my god!" Was all Lassiter had to say on the matter. He was truthfully disturbed.

"From the wedding party." Shawn said. "The Kensington case isn't over." He sounded just as solemn as Lassiter felt. The three of them didn't bring up the elephant in the room, that this murder was a direct attack on Psych. Though it was all that Lassiter could think about, to make himself feel better he turned away and sought out a uniform.

"Has anyone been in the building?" Lassiter asked.

"Not yet." The Uniform said. "We were waiting on Mr. Spencer's clearance. From what we can tell, the disturbance to the building is just the door. None of the windows are broken; none of the doors were opened."

"That's a good sign." Shawn said lowly. "I still want to get in though, make sure there's nothing unpleasant waiting on the inside."

Gus didn't respond, he had his phone to his ear, and cursed as once again he failed to get to Randall. "His Cell phone's turned off." Gus said.

"Call Chief Anderson." Shawn said. "He can probably get Randall at home."

"Right." Gus said, and he started dialling for Chief Anderson. Shawn meanwhile went to one of the windows of the Psych office and glanced inside. From what he could see nothing inside was disturbed. However another glanced showed that his computer chair was a different height. Shawn froze.

"Gus." Shawn said standing up. "Someone was at my desk."

"Okay thank you Chief Anderson." Gus finished his call to Coral Haven and turned back to Shawn. "Your desk?" Gus asked. "You're sure?"

"I'm positive." Shawn said. "We need to get in there."

"You can't yet." Lassiter said right away. "Not until the CHPD get here and clear the area."

"Damn." Gus cursed. "He's right, if this is a member of the wedding party, it's still the Kensington case. SBPD can't work it."

"Afraid not." Lassiter suppressed the urge to groan. "So any prints we've found or any clues have are to be handed over as soon as the other guys get here."

"Which means we're waiting." Shawn said. "Great."

As soon as his distaste became known, Shawn's phone rang again. He grabbed it quickly, only to see that it was Randall. "Randy Cop." Shawn said as he answered. "What took you so long?"

"Personal stuff." Randall said curtly. "What's the situation, I'm just heading to my car now."

"Another murder." Shawn said. "Another member of the bridal party."

"Whoa – what?" Randall answered. "So -not Margaret?"

"Not Margaret." Shawn answered. "Our next victim is Rylea Campbell. Stabbed through the throat, like the others – and nailed to my office door."

Randall actually seethed. "Ow."

"You're telling me." Shawn said. "SBPD cleared the surrounding area, so anything they found will be handed over to you, but I need to get into my office."

"Okay." Randall said. "Any particular reason you need in?"

"I had a vision." Shawn said. "Someone was at my desk. I think the killer got in somehow. There's a clue there. I know it."

"Then I'm on it." Randall promised. "Just hang tight."

"Okay." Shawn said. They hung up and Shawn pocketed his phone. "Detective Peterson is on his way."

"Got it." Gus said.

"I'm sticking around until he gets here." Lassiter said. "Is O'Hara still around?"

"She stepped away." Gus said. "Back soon I think."

"Wait." Shawn said. "Why did she leave, that sick?"

Gus shrugged. "She just said she didn't feel too great. Didn't want to contaminate the scene. So I'm guessing yes."

"Why didn't you follow her?" Shawn asked curiously.

"I tried." Gus said. "She got mad at me."

"Weird." Shawn said.

Within the next half n hour, Detective Peterson arrived with a few squad cards from CHPD. Randall exited his car in an odd fashion. His sunglasses were kept on, and his clothes looked awfully dishevelled. As soon as he flashed his badge though, he and the other uniforms were allowed behind the yellow tape and he walked right over to the trio, his eyes trained on the tarp. "That's where our guy is pinned?" Randall asked.

"Yeah." Shawn said. "That's where he is."

Randall just nodded and moved to the tarp without saying another word. He was in there only a few seconds before coming out with a low whistle. "Detective Lassiter, you said the SBPD already covered the surrounding area?"

"Yes." Lassiter obliged. "They did."

"Okay." Randall said. "I'm going to have my guys double check, just to be sure. Since you were here first why don't you help me investigate the body?"

"Uh..." Lassiter paused. "I'm not on this case."

"Alright." Randall said. "Shawn? Gus?"

Gus didn't think he had the stomach. He shook his head. Which left Shawn. "My office." Shawn said. "I need in there."

"We'll get in there." Randall promised. "But we can't leave a body hanging here. We need to get it down first."

"Okay." Shawn said. "Let's get it over with."

Randall had already snapped on gloves and was handing Shawn an extra pair. Not that Shawn was really going to need them. He did his work a little differently. He approached the body, and gave it a stern look over. The poor man was starting to slouch against the nails, his skin starting to rip under the pull. Shawn kept looking. He was dressed casually, in pjs. Which meant he was probably attacked in his own home.

Particular blood splatters indicated he was stabbed here. However there were no bruises, nothing on his head that said he had been knocked out before being brought here. "When this guy gets brought to the lab, make sure he gets a toxicology report done." Shawn said.

"Noted." Randall said. He nudged the body a bit upward so he could see under him; the door was splintered a bit behind him. Shawn could see it in his head then, Rylea being pressed against the door by force. "There's nothing on this guy." Randall said. "Do you sense anything?"

"Not a thing." Shawn said. Rylea's body was too clean. He just hoped his hunch on the drugging wasn't off.

A few more minutes looking over the body didn't lead to any new discoveries. Randall finally decided it was time to take the poor bastard down. "Straight to the lab boys." Randall told his uniforms. "Start with the usual and work in a toxicology report."

"You got it." The uniforms responded, and slowly by surely Rylea Campbell was loaded into the back of an ambulance, the tarp was taken down, leaving only the police tape.

"Lassiter." Randall called. "You're still sticking around."

"Curious." Lassiter said.

"Not a problem." Randall said. "You've been in the office before?"

"Yes." Lassiter said.

"Help me clear it for Shawn?"

Lassiter didn't need to be asked twice. Ensuring Shawn's safety was the least he could do. He nodded and stepped up to help Randall out. Shawn handed over the keys to Lassiter to let the two in. The two detectives moved for the door, unlocking it slowly and heading inside back to back.

The moved slowly, working the area in a circle and keeping close proximity. "I heard Shawn got offered a job." Lassiter said.

"So did I." Randall said. "Chief Anderson told me last night, he has a good eye for talent."

"Right." Lassiter said. "Well just so we're clear, I don't like it."

"Ha." Randall said. "We're on the same boat pal."

"Oh?" Lassiter asked. "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"Don't get me wrong, I'm learning slowly to like Shawn. But Chief Anderson is A) a perfectionist, and B) with everything going on with this case, I'm starting to think the station back home isn't very safe for him. We had a mis-hap with the elevator the other day, and the emergency line was cut. Internal Affairs still hasn't reported back on the matter."

"You think a cop is doing all this?" Lassiter asked.

"It's probable." Randall said.

"However." Randall continued. "Until I know for sure, I'm not going to make noise."

"Okay." Lassiter said. "If you're sure."

"You're worried." Randall said.

"Shut up." Lassiter defended.

"The place is clear." Randall changed the subject. "We can bring him in now."

Lassiter obliged and stepped outside to wave Shawn and Gus in, the two came in. Gus hanging back by the door, as Shawn went straight for his desk and started looking around.

"Anything missing?" Lassiter asked.

"No." Shawn said. His eye was trained on the height of his computer chair, it was adjusted a little higher then it normally was, whoever was here was shorter than him by at least a few inches. That left Shawn a bit baffled. Very reluctantly, Shawn flipped on his computer screen. "Cryptic message." Shawn announced, as sure enough his computer screen displayed a typed message from the murderer.

_Keep at it Psychic. Every effort you make to closing the case, brings you that much closer to me. I'm waiting at the end of the tunnel; we're going to have so much fun together. I promise. _

"That can't be good." Shawn said. He felt tense, and when Lassiter got to Shawn's side to read it for himself his own face went white.

"The killer's coming after you." Lassiter said.

"No." Randall said immediately. "The killer only wants Shawn if Shawn is coming after them. This can be easily avoided."

"How?" Gus asked.

"Shawn gets off the case." Randall finished. "Placed into witness protection."

"I like it." Lassiter said.

"I don't." Shawn asserted himself. "Look, this is bad. Very bad."

"Agreed." Lassiter said. "Bad means dangerous."

"I know." Shawn said. "But there's no way this thing can be solved without me."

"Shawn, I'm pretty sure Chief Anderson isn't going to want to risk it." Randall said. "You might not have a choice in the matter."

"He's right." Lassiter said.

"Shawn can stay on the case if he wants too."

Chief Anderson spoke the words nonchalantly, as later that afternoon, Shawn, Gus, and Randall returned to Coral Haven to report back to the older man. Gus was NOT pleased. Nor was Randall.

Shawn on the other hand gave a relieved. "Thank you sir."

"Chief." Randall said carefully. "Are you sure that's wise? The killer blatantly left a message saying they were waiting for Shawn."

"Right." Chief Anderson gave Shawn a once over. "Be extra careful." He wasn't humouring Randall at all.

"Sir!" Randall cut in. "He's risking his life here."

"Police risk their lives every day." Chief Anderson explained. "This is no different."

"It kind of us." Randall argued.

"Detective Peterson, do you doubt your abilities as an officer?" Chief Anderson suddenly asked.

"I – no sir." Randall said.

"Then you have no doubts, that as an officer of the law you're more than capable of keeping Mr. Spencer safe."

Randall couldn't argue that point. Instead he just gave a tired. "Yes sir."

"Now all of you." Chief Anderson said. "Get out of my office, and solve this thing. The victim was another member of the bridal party correct?"

"Yeah." Shawn said.

"Well don't risk it." Anderson said. "I want two officers placed in the homes of very remaining member of the bridal party. Understood?"

"Understood." Randall said.

The three of them finally started to file out of Anderson's office, but before they could slip away Chief Anderson called Shawn back privately.

"I know it isn't Monday yet." Chief Anderson said. "However I would like to know if you were thinking about the offer?"

"Actually, yes." Shawn said. "I have been."

"Do you have an answer for me?" Chief Anderson asked. Shawn shook his head.

"Not yet, it's a lot to consider, and the case just opened back up. I really just want to focus on that."

"Spoken like a true officer." Chief Anderson said. "Alright, new deal -instead of Monday, how about you let me know when the case is closed?"

Shawn thought about it. He gave a nod. "Deal."

"Alright." Chief Anderson said. "Until then Mr. Spencer."

"Until then sir." Shawn left the room to join the others who were waiting patiently in the stairwell.

Later on when the three were on the main floor, Randall was gathering uniforms together and sending them off too different addresses. When the last squad car left the parking lot, Randall's phone rang. "Detective Peter - ...Babe I know. I'm still at the station. Yes, the case is that bad, so it's going to have to wait until I get home. It's none of your business. Okay – okay! Dammit! Bye!" Randall hung up looking overly frustrated. Shawn and Gus shared a look before Randall pointed right at Shawn. "You and I have to talk."

"Uh okay." Shawn said. He followed Randall just out of ear shot, part of him already knowing what was upsetting the detective. "I have a feeling, something got sent to Marcus. Something involving the two of us. Am I right?"

"Yeah." Randall said. "He got a picture in the mail, of us in the elevator after we fell."

"I take it he took it the wrong way?" Shawn said.

"He jumped to the worst conclusion." Randall admitted. "We've been arguing about it all night."

"Someone wants the four of us broken up." Shawn said. "Lassiter got the same picture."

"It's direct feed from the security camera." Randall said.

"Chief Anderson?" Shawn tried.

"Not in a million years." Randall said. "He's an ass, but he's not that much of an ass."

"Who else has access to the feed?" Shawn asked.

"We all do." Randall said. "Everybody here takes part in making sure the station stays secure."

"Do you think it's an officer committing these murders?" Shawn said. "Trying to screw up our personal lives so that we're off our game?"

"Yeah but who?" Randall said. "Coral Haven has a lot of cops."

"Officer Jenny." Shawn said right away. "She's small but, she was very adamant about getting me on the case, she was the first one to mention the fire at my place, and she was put in charge of the wedding party when this whole thing started."

"You have a right to suspect her." Randall said. "She couldn't have killed this guy though."

"Why not?" Shawn said. "Right now she's my biggest lead." Shawn was also counting the height difference of his office chair, a detail he kept from Randall for obvious reasons.

"She was fired yesterday." Randall said. "I know her pretty well, as soon as she was let go she came to me for a ride. She's in Hawaii until further notice."

"You're positive?" Shawn said.

"Yeah." Randall said. "I was with her when she bought the ticket. She was on the first flight out."

"Damn." Shawn said. "It would've been so good."

"Well. I can handle it." Randall said. "It might not even be an officer. I'm sure computer hackers exist somewhere. We'll re-interview the bridal party."

"Sounds good." Shawn said. "Gus and I should probably think about a hotel room, stay close to the city. Easier access."

"Why spend the money?" Randall said. "If I can talk Marcus down and explain to him about the picture, he'd probably let you guys stay with us."

"No." When Shawn explained the situation to Lassiter, Lassiter immediately showed his distaste. "Shawn I don't want you throwing yourself into harm's way." Lassiter argued. "Staying in Coral Haven is in harm's way."

When Shawn and Gus had returned to Santa Barbara for the day, they decided to head to Henry's. Having called Lassiter as soon as they were in the neighbourhood so that he could meet them there. The three were currently seated around the table on Henry's deck.

"Dead guy nailed to my office door." Shawn reminded Lassiter. "Here. In Santa Barbara. I don't think it really matters where I stay at this point."

"He has a point." Gus piped in. "I don't mind helping to pay for a hotel."

"A hotel!" Shawn said excitedly. "See, taken care of."

"A hotel, unguarded." Lassiter said. "I'm not having that either."

"Then we're staying with Randy cop." Shawn said. "Gus and I can buddy up in their guest room, no big deal."

Lassiter sighed. He wasn't on the case officially. He didn't really have a choice. "Okay." He said. "I don't like it. Hate in fact, but okay."

Shawn softened and leaned over to give Lassiter a kiss. "It's going to be fine." Shawn said. "I'm not going to go running off by myself. Gus and I are in this together, and if anything goes horribly wrong, SBPD will be the first ones called. You'll be there in a flash, like the superhero! I know you will."

"A flash." Lassiter repeated. Shawn gave an encouraging grin and tried making Lassiter feel better by adding in the next couple notes of the Flash's original theme song.

"Ahaaa..."

"Flash!" Gus piped in, and both of them carried on. "Ahaa!"

"I hate you both." Lassiter said.

"Well." Shawn said with a bit of a shrug. "You officially have the rest of your life to learn to love us, so I'm okay with that."

"Wait what?" Gus was suddenly very interested in the conversation.

"Oh." Shawn blushed. With all the excitement, and the lurking danger, he completely forgot to gush to Gus like a girl about how Lassiter had proposed. "Gus I'm so sorry."

"Sorry?" Gus asked. "Sorry for what, did you two? Are you guys?"

"Engaged." Lassiter confirmed. "Last night."

"That's awesome!" Gus was truly ecstatic for his friend. "Wait right here!" Gus ordered. He was practically bouncing. "I'm going to get Juliet, she needs to know too!"

Shawn just laughed and agreed, and soon Gus was running off to grab Juliet. Shawn just kept laughing.

"He's more excited than a child would be." Lassiter pointed out. "He took off running."

"Yeah." Shawn smiled. "Left his car and everything."

"Where did he go?" Both men turned their attention to Henry who was just coming through the door carrying a tray of drinks. Henry set the tray down carefully looking Shawn and Lassiter over.

"He went to grab Jules." Shawn said. "Even though she's home sick."

"That's a little cruel." Henry said. "What could possibly be so important, he has to bug her when she doesn't want to be bugged?"

"Sharing the news." Shawn said lightly – oh yeah he got to tell his dad now.

"What news?" Henry turned his head. He was honestly glad the whole picture fiasco didn't break them up, but there was still a bit of resentment he couldn't help but feel towards the detective.

"Uh." Lassiter said. "Well, last night Shawn and I – we... I asked him to marry me." Lassiter got out. Shawn was so happy that he gave his dad a winning smile.

"Ring." Henry said right away. "Where's his ring? He's not wearing it."

"Dad." Shawn said. "It was a spontaneous proposal, he didn't get a ring. I'm okay with that."

"That's bullshit." Henry said. "He did so buy you a ring. I saw him."

Shawn's eyes widened. He looked to Lassiter. "You bought me a ring?"

"Four months ago." Henry confirmed. "On your sixth month, and he agreed six months was too soon. So where's the ring now?"

Lassiter blushed; he had been carrying that stupid ring in his pocket for months now. The one time he needs it – the one time, and he had miraculously decided to leave it at home. "In my night stand." Lassiter said. "It's safe."

Now, Shawn could've easily been upset that Lassie had wanted to propose months ago but didn't. However Shawn's inner girl was currently doing cartwheels over the moon. He was getting a ring. "Yes!" Shawn struck a victory pose. Henry just rolled his eyes and grabbed his drink. Lassiter face palmed.

"Congratulations." Henry finally said after a few moments. "I wish you two nothing but the best."

"Thanks dad!" Shawn was beaming. He was so caught up in the moment, that he had no idea he was being watched.


	9. Silence

**A/N: **Another update! Oh the third one in four days! Tell me I'm awesome! I don't know guys; this writing streak might end soon, but hopefully not too soon as we're getting deeper into it. So much deeper in fact!

Now I don't know if anyone is keeping track, but Henry, Jules and Chief Vic don't seem to be getting a lot of love in this fic. Not to worry! They'll all make appearances before the fic is out- I promise!

As always reviews are heavily encouraged, thoughts, suggestions, critiques, all welcome!

Chow for now!

~Matilda

**Silence**

"So, the guest room is just through there, bathroom is to the left, and the kitchen is there – eat whatever you want I'm not much of a cook."

Shawn and Gus were being let into Randall and Marcus' apartment for the first time, it was a small two bedroom and though it had enough personal touches in it to be considered 'homey' it was way too cramped for four people. "So the guest room?" Shawn asked. "How big is the bed?"

"It's a double." Randall said. "You're sharing with Gus?"

"I don't see why not." Shawn said, he then looked to Gus who quirked a brow at Shawn then shook his head.

"Shawn sleeps like he's under attack." Gus said. "If I sleep next to him I'll get a bruised eye. I'll take the couch."

"Now now Gus." Shawn said. "It's no problem, I can take the couch."

"I'm cool with it." Gus said. "Besides, I wake up earlier then you, so Randall and Marcus don't have to feel bad about coming into the living room in the morning."

"He has a point." Randall said, the detective crossed his arms and leaned against the threshold of the kitchen. "You guys should drop your stuff and get ready to go; we yet again have a wedding party to interview. I'm not looking forward to it, but the sooner we do it, the better."

Shawn and Gus agreed and the two took their bags to the guest room. The guest room was just big enough for the double bed Randall had mentioned. There was a small space between the bed and wall just large enough for Shawn to wedge his bag into. Oh this room wasn't going to be comfortable at all.

"I hate that this case keeps going." Shawn finally said out loud.

"I know what you mean." Gus said. "It's a little nerve racking, and we've been going back and forth so much that I actually miss Santa Barbara."

"Yeah." Shawn said. "Me too."

There was a beat of silence before Gus spoke up again. "Do you think its weird detective Peterson doesn't have a partner?"

"Little bit." Shawn said. "But so far he hasn't needed one; he's a really good cop."

"Every good cop needs a partner." Gus said. "Lassiter and Juliet are great cops and they got each other."

"True." Shawn said. "Eh, it's none of our business though. Let's just finish the case and forget about it."

"Okay." Gus said. "So long as the case doesn't get too crazy I'm on board."

"Same." Shawn said. "I feel obligated to see it through to the end."

"There's a but though." Gus said.

"Yeah." Shawn said. "I'm starting to feel uneasy. I don't want a repeat of the Atkinson case."

"No one does." Gus said. "It's not going to happen."

"I know." Shawn said. "We're all in good hands."

"Yes we are." Gus said.

"So, back tracking a little?" Shawn asked. "What has been up with Juliet lately? I haven't seen her, and you said she was sick? Everything alright there?"

"Everything's fine." Gus said. "As far as I know."

"Oh?" Shawn said. "What did she say about my engagement?"

"Oh." Gus said casually. "She's pissed."

"Wait – what? Why?" Shawn was honestly shocked; he thought Juliet would be thrilled! She was Shawn's best girlfriend after all.

Gus shrugged. "She started crying, and then she yelled at me to buy her a ring and kicked me out of her apartment...I think I have to propose."

"Ohhhh..." Shawn said, and suddenly he had the biggest grin on his face. "I see. You sly dog you."

"Huh?" Gus said. "What are you going on about?"

"Nothing." Shawn said innocently. "Congratulations."

"What?" Gus said. "You're freaking me out."

"I know!" Shawn said he then danced out of the room and back to the living area just as Marcus was coming through the door. He was still dressed in his mailman uniform, and the first thing he did was ditch his giant mailbag onto the couch. He looked up to see Shawn, giving a small wave.

"Oh, hey Shawn." Marcus greeted the fake psychic with a small nod. He then went over to Randall to give him a kiss. "Heading out soon?"

"Yes." Randall said. "Just as soon as Shawn and Gus get settled."

"We're settled." Shawn said. "We have a big day ahead of us."

"Shawn!" Gus yelled as he followed from the guest room. "It's bothering me now. What are you going on about?"

"Nothing!" Shawn said excitedly. "Randall – ready to go?"

"Yes." Randall said. "Marcus, we'll be back later." He leaned in and gave Marcus another kiss before opening the door with Shawn and Gus in tow.

The remaining members of the wedding party; were NOT happy to be back in the police station – or having uniformed officers guarding their houses now. All of them had something to say about the matter.

"I thought the case was settled." A very disgruntled groomsmen said – his name was Kyle. "Margaret stabbed them all."

"Er no."Shawn said. "Unfortunately Margaret was just another victim, she was killed in a way that threw us off. We believed the case was over until Rylea Campbell was found murdered in Santa Barbara."

At that, Kyle visibly shook. "First Renee, then Nora, then David and Margaret...and now Rylea?" He started clenching and unclenching his knuckles. "None of us are safe are we?"

"You are!" Shawn said. "So long as you all follow police orders and keep under watch at all times, there isn't going to be any more victims."

"Okay." Kyle said. He calmed down a little, but he still wasn't entirely convinced.

"Right." Shawn said. "Kyle, can you tell me – was there anyone who didn't want Renee and David getting married? Anyone who fought the marriage?"

Kyle shook his head. "No one I can think of." Kyle said. "Renee and David were together for years. Renee's mother thought David was a saint, and David's parents were upset they didn't get engaged sooner."

"Okay." Shawn said. "I don't have any further questions."

Kyle was allowed to leave, and the next member of the wedding party that got interviewed was very emotional.

"I'm just so scared!" The girl cried. "They're all dead! It's all happening so fast, what if I'm next?" The girl's name was Sarah.

"We're doing everything in our power to ensure that doesn't happen." Randall said.

"Sarah." Gus cut in. "Do you know of anyone who was against the wedding? Anyone who would hold a grudge?"

"No." Sarah shook her head. "Renee and David were the perfect couple. Everyone they knew believed they would be together forever, they just had that aura you know?"

"Yeah." Gus said. "I know. Alright, thank you."

The afternoon dragged on with the remaining members of the wedding party all having the same story about Renee and David's fairy tale ending turning into a nightmare. By that evening, the three had nothing new on the case.

"This sucks." Shawn was the first one to say it matter of fact. "So bad."

"You're telling me." Gus rolled his neck and glanced at his menu. The three went to a small restaurant for food, though none of them were really hungry. "No new leads and a handful of scared wedding guests. It's getting complicated."

"We'll figure it out." Randall spoke up from his menu. "Until then let's just eat."

"Sounds like a plan." Shawn said. The three sat in silence for about ten minutes before Randall finally spoke up.

"Shawn." Randall said. "We can't really ignore the fact that this case has something to do with you."

"I know." Shawn answered. "I've just been trying not to think about it."

"Tomorrow I'm going to the prison to talk with Kayla Atkinson again." Randall said.

"She must know something." Gus agreed. "She knew Margaret after all."

"But Margaret died." Shawn said. "Kayla Atkinson is in jail, and aside from Margaret and the stabbings the two cases don't seem to be related in any way."

"I beg to differ." Randall said. "There's a solid connection I'm sure. Kayla has to know somebody."

"She won't talk though." Shawn said. "Not unless you catch her in the act. At least that's what I've been told."

"Well she doesn't know me." Randall said. "We'll see how she reacts to me."

Their meal arrived and no more words regarding the case were shared among the three. The day ended with them returning to Randall's apartment. Marcus greeted them from the couch with another wave and a quick. "Hey." He was curled up in a couch corner watching television.

"Feel free to join me." Marcus said. "I have to be up early to do the mail so I won't be here much longer."

"Sure." Gus took the invitation not really knowing what else to say. He sat down on the couch next to Marcus. "What are we watching?"

"Some sitcom." Marcus shrugged.

"Cool." Gus answered and the two fell into silence. Shawn not really wanting to intrude stepped back into the kitchen where Randall was filling up a kettle.

"So..." Shawn said. "This is home life?"

"This is home life." Randall confirmed. "Nice and quiet, just the way I like it."

"Minus the extra company." Shawn said.

"True." Randall said. "But it's not permanent, so I'm not about to argue."

"So, how did you and Marcus meet?" Shawn asked. "I'm curious."

"About then months ago." Randall said. "It's kind of a funny story."

"Really?" Shawn said. "I'm all ears."

"Well he was just moving in from Santa Barbara." Randall explained. "Was living in town barely a week before he got robbed. I worked it."

"Shacking up with the victim?" Shawn joked. "That's a rather ballsy move for a cop."

"You know I could say the same thing to you about your boyfriend and being a consultant." Randall said.

"Fiance." Shawn corrected happily. "He popped the question two days ago."

"Oh." Randall. "Congrats!"

"Congrats on what?" Marcus had gotten up from the couch and came into the kitchen area.

"Shawn's engaged." Randall said.

"Fantastic!" Marcus seemed to jump right on the bandwagon. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks!" Just being able to tell people he was getting married made Shawn happy, damn he was a bigger gush then he thought.

"Babe." Marcus said then, promptly ending the subject. "I'm going to bed."

"Alright." Randall said. "I'm just making my tea and I'll be right in."

Marcus soon vanished into another room, and Shawn popping his head into the living room noted that Gus was starting to get comfy.

"I should probably call it a night too." Shawn said. "We need to work out a game plan tomorrow."

"We will." Randall said. "After I pay Kayla Atkinson a visit, -you and Gus are free to come by the way."

"Oh..." Shawn was suddenly uncomfortable. "I – no it's okay, just take down her statement and I'll give it a look over."

"You sure?" Randall asked. He completely missed the tone in Shawn's voice.

"Oh positive." Shawn said. "Gus and I will just, go check out the giant monkey. We haven't yet."

"Alright, I'll call you when I get back." Randall said.

"Sounds good." Shawn said and he was up. "Good night."

"Night." Randall called after him. Shawn was in the guestroom before another word was spoken. As soon as he was alone he took a breath and counted until ten.

"Alright..." Shawn calmed himself. "Enough of this sad shit, time for bed."

Truthfully though, Shawn hated Randall in that instance for suggesting Shawn come with him to see Kayla. The fake psychic felt sick to his stomach and had to take heavy breaths. He acted okay, and went through life doing juggling acts and humming his own theme music because he could. But the fact of the matter was that Kayla Atkinson had almost killed him. Shawn almost died 10 months ago and would have if the SBPD hadn't interfered. They almost didn't make it. The memory made Shawn's head spin. He sighed tiredly and let himself fall into the guest bed. He was going to sleep it off.

Shawn couldn't breathe; the air around him was pungent and damp. Shawn tried harder and harder to get air in but it just wasn't happening. Finally Shawn opened his eyes, and froze. He was in a coffin.

"What...what?" Shawn nearly panicked, and looking down on himself he could see that he was in a suit. "Oh...no...no – this isn't good..." Why was he in a coffin? Was he dead? He didn't feel dead. "Hello? !"

Shawn wasn't sure why he was calling out, he was in a coffin, it's not like anyone could hear him call out. He was trapped, trapped in a coffin. Probably underground. In that instance Shawn forgot how to think, he started screaming, and kicking, his hands slamming repeatedly on the coffin door above him. He wanted out, he needed out. He screamed, and kicked, and slammed until his voice went hoarse and his body went numb. Finally he stopped to take a breath, quick ragged breaths that felt like fire in his chest.

When Shawn couldn't take it anymore, when he was about ready to give up and wait for death, the door lifted above him. Light streamed in making Shawn winced. He eventually got used to it, but something prevented him from standing up – he was free to go, but he couldn't. Something was holding him back.

"Get the fuck up already. I'm not done yet."

The voice was oddly familiar; Shawn could barely put a finger on it. He was about to make a guess when the coffin suddenly jolted, then jolted again. Again and again the coffin rocked until it fell over. Shawn rolled out of the side uselessly and braced himself for the coffin to hit him as it fell, instead the coffin exploded into a million little splinters.

"I said get up."

Shawn looked up, his eyes meeting Kayla's. She was watching him with a sick grin on her face. Looking around Shawn noted he was in a funeral home, he had to be – no funeral home in the history of funeral homes ever had furniture that matched the decor. On shaky legs Shawn stood staring Kayla down.

"It really was a lovely service." Kayla said casually. "Your dad cried."

"I'm not dead." Shawn said. "I'm not dead."

"Aww baby." Kayla cooed. "It'll be okay, you just have to accept it."

"I'm not dead!" Shawn repeated a little louder. "But you know who is? Your brother!"

"Oh..." Kayla stuck out her bottom lip like a child caught doing something wrong. "I know he is, it was tragic, but let me tell you something about my brother Spencer." Kayla's voice changed with that sentence, and she lunged at Shawn. Surprisingly strong, she managed to knock Shawn to the ground, pinning him down. Shawn couldn't move. "He was a dirty good for nothing sinner!" She screamed in his face. "Just like you!"

"You're wrong!" Shawn hollered. "You're wrong!" He tried to push her off, but it seemed the girl was made of stone.

"Am I?" Kayla asked. "Because it seems to me, you're the one who's wrong, you're the one with the lies, the dirty hands, and you're the one who killed all those people! You're a murderer Shawn Spencer! A MURDERER!"

As Kayla screamed her arm went up into the hair, Shawn could see the glint of a blade pointed right at him. It came straight down into Shawn's throat. Pain ripped through Shawn's body, and he could feel his own blood pouring out and down each side of his neck, soaking the carpet under him.

Shawn lay there, unable to move or speak. Kayla had vanished into thin air, and Shawn was left alone with a knife sticking out of his neck with no one there to help him. Lassie didn't come, Lassie didn't make it. Shawn was going to die alone.

Shawn snapped awake then, in a cold sweat. He was twisted in the sheets of the guest bed in Randall and Marcus' apartment. It was a dream. Thank god it was a dream! Shawn never had a dream feel more real in his entire life. He was still petrified.

Sitting up in the bed he took a second to adjust his sheets so that he was comfortable again. Though there was no way in hell he was going back to sleep after all that. Feeling really uncertain and really vulnerable Shawn grabbed for this phone. Not even thinking about the time, Shawn dialled for Lassiter, and he thanked his lucky stars that Lassiter answered.

"Shawn?" Lassiter's voice was deep and groggy. Shawn revelled in it, though he felt bad for having woken Lassie up. "Why are you calling so late?"

"No reason." Shawn said quietly. "I just wanted to hear your voice." He bit his tongue as to why he was really calling. He didn't want Lassie to worry. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"It's okay." Lassiter said a little more awake now. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Shawn lied. "It's just quiet in Coral Haven. I miss you."

"Hmmm..." Lassiter said. "I miss you too."

Shawn smiled, relaxing. He didn't know what he would do without Lassie. "I'll do my best to end this case quickly and efficiently."

"You always do." Lassiter said. "You should get some sleep though, you sound like crap."

"I do." Shawn agreed and he laughed a little. "I'm stressed."

"I can tell." Lassiter said. "Why else would you call your fiancé long distance at ...4 AM?"

"Booty call?" Shawn joked.

"Oh yeah." Lassiter said with a tired laugh behind his voice. "I'll drive right over."

"Hey." Shawn said. "I'm sorry again for waking you."

"It's not a problem." Lassiter said. "Seriously, get some rest." He then urged. "I'll call you tomorrow."

"Sounds good." Shawn smiled then. "Good night Lassie."

"Good night Spencer."

The two hung up, and for a second Shawn held the phone to his heart in thought before the sounds of shuffling footsteps caught his attention. Shawn quirked a brow, and instead of going back to bed, got up on his tippy toes to the door to crack it open to see what was up. Unsurprisingly he saw Marcus manoeuvring around the apartment trying not to wake Gus. He was dressed in his mail man's uniform and padding around in socked feet. Shawn didn't know why, but he watched until Marcus was fully ready, and it wasn't until Marcus was grabbing his coat did Shawn pop his head out of the guest room.

"Have a good day at work." Shawn said in a high whisper.

"Thanks." Marcus responded in the same tone. "Get back to sleep. I hear you've got big plans to visit a monkey later today."

"It's going to be awesome." Shawn promised. "Like Disney land in a mall –with monkeys."

"God you're weird." Marcus answered in a quiet laugh. "I'm leaving now." Marcus was true to his word and left the apartment. Shawn not wanting to disturb Gus went back into the guest room to try to get some more rest before the day started.

By the time morning actually came around, Shawn was able to pretend the dream didn't happen. He and Gus were sitting on Randall's couch eating cereal and watching cartoons.

"I think, if George Jetson were to meet Wilma Flinstone, he'd dump whatsernuts in a second." Shawn said with a mouthful of lucky charms.

"Jane." Gus answered. "And dude no, Wilma is a married woman."

"Doesn't stop half the guests on Springer." Shawn accused.

"None of the guest on Springer are animated red heads." Gus countered.

"Yeah..." Shawn said. "Hanna Barbara has a weird thing for gingers, Jane, Wilma, Daphne...creepy."

"It's just a colour." Gus said.

"Jules dies her hair red tomorrow." Shawn said quickly. "Your response?"

"You look gorgeous honey!" Gus quipped.

"What if you're lying?" Shawn said.

"Then at least I still get to share a bed with her." Gus said.

"Do you two ever shut up?" Randall spoke up from the kitchen table, he was reading a newspaper.

"Nope." Gus said. "Sorry, blame him." Gus gestured to Shawn who was in the middle of downing another mouthful of cereal. "He's a bad influence."

"What are you talking about?" Shawn defended. "I'm awesome!" As he said that, a bit of milk seeped from his mouth and dribbled down his chin.

"Ew." Gus said immediately, and he gave Shawn a playful shove to the side.

Normally when stuff like this happened, Shawn was the first to say something witty and laughable, but the sudden shove had given him a quick flashback to his dream, being pushed out of the coffin. Shawn suppressed the urge to shiver, and went quiet. He remembered Kayla yelling at him that he was a murderer. "Disgusting." Shawn said quietly.

Gus blinked. "You feeling okay?"

"What?" Shawn said. The two looked at each other. "What -Fine, why?"

"I pushed you." Gus said. "Push back."

"Hmm..." Shawn said. "Nah!" Shawn was back. "Let's finish up our cereal and go see that monkey!"

Gus sighed and shook his head. "Okay okay we'll go see the monkey already!"

Shawn gave a hoot of victory. "Stuffed monkey! Here we come!"

The two were up and marching their bowls over to Randall's sink, they were courteous in rinsing them off.

"I'll call you guy when I'm back from the prison." Randall said.

"Sounds fine." Shawn said quickly. "No rush though."

"Right." Randall yawned and took another sip of his coffee. "Well you two enjoy the giant stuffed monkey."

"We will." Like with Marcus before, Shawn made it a promise, and even gave a salute as he and Gus made their way to the door.

When they were gone, Randall finished off his coffee and folded his paper up before getting up to leave himself. He had a bit of a drive ahead of him and didn't want to waste any time.

The prison wasn't anything spectacular, everything was singularly coloured, and the air surrounding the place was still. As Randall approached the place, he couldn't really see himself wanting to stay longer than 20 minutes. He passed the lobby and went to the first desk where the receptionist looked like she had better things to be doing then manning a front desk at a prison.

"Name." The woman asked.

"Detective Randall Peterson." Randall said. "Coral Haven Police Department."

"I.D." The woman asked.

Randall produced his badge and card and presented it to the woman. She gave it a thorough look over.

"Reason for visiting?"

"I'm here to interview a convict." Randall said. "Kayla Atkinson."

The woman took a second to type everything into her computer. Randall was expecting to be buzzed in with no problem; instead the receptionist gave an apology.

"I'm sorry detective." The receptionist said. "But Kayla Atkinson is no longer being held here. She was extradited to Hawaii Federal Prison yesterday afternoon."

As soon as the receptionist said that. Randall's mouth went dry. Hawaii. Too coincidental. Suddenly Randall had a feeling Shawn was right about Officer Jenny. "Tell me." Randall said. "Who was the officer that signed for her release?"


	10. Good News Maybe Not

**A/N: **Another Chapter! Yes! As usual, please enjoy, and reviews are always welcome. Now I don't want to give too much away because you know – you have to read it, but this chapter starts off really light then proceeds to get really **really **dark. So fair warning!

Cheers!

~Matilda

**Good News! - Maybe Not!**

"That really is a big monkey." Shawn said wistfully. He leaned casually against the rail that surrounded a large case. The monkey started on the lower level of the mall and over looked the higher levels. Spectators from all floors looked on from various balconies. Shawn and Gus standing on a middle floor had to crane their necks to see higher, and like Randall said it was preserved in a glass case in the middle of the Coral Haven mall.

"It is big." Gus agreed. "We've seen it now, can we go?"

"After lunch." Shawn said. "I saw a noodle cart in the food court, I want to try!"

"Fine." Gus said. "To the noodle cart."

"Yes!" Shawn said.

"Do you think Randall's having any luck at the prison?" Gus finally asked.

"Maybe." Shawn said. "I highly doubt it."

"Why didn't we go?" Gus finally asked. "We should've asked to ride along. It would've been more productive then going to a mall to look at a giant monkey." He was clearly irritated.

"Because." Shawn defended. "I really didn't want to."

Gus sounded like he missed the point entirely. "Why not?"

"Oh please, we're_ not_ having this conversation." Shawn said.

Gus knew Shawn better than anyone on the planet. It wasn't long before he was pressing for Shawn to just say it. "Because you're scared, Kayla almost killed you. I'd be scared too."

"Hell no!" Shawn said. "It's not that at all, she's in jail. I'm not scared at all. What's she going to do behind plexi glass? Glare at me? HA! Scarey indeed. You're crazy Gus." Shawn stuffed a bit of noodles into his mouth.

"Uh huh." Gus said. "You're terrified."

"I'm not." Shawn lied. "Stop with the crazy accusations and eat your damn noodles."

"You're not eating."

Back in Santa Barbara, Lassiter and Juliet were on their lunch. Lassiter was beat, Shawn's call earlier that morning having bothered him to no end. He could tell something had Shawn spooked and Lassiter was mad he wasn't able to figure out what. He did his best to distract himself, and he found the best way to do that was to point out the fact Juliet hadn't even touched her lunch. They had been sitting for ten minutes.

"It smells funny." She complained. Juliet leaned back in her chair and continued to glare at her sandwich disapprovingly. Truthfully she looked just as sleep deprived as Lassiter. "I can't seem to kick this stupid bug."

"Right..." Lassiter said. Now he wasn't an expert on women, but he had a feeling Juliet was dealing with more than just a 'bug.' He took a bite from his own meal. "So how long have you had this 'bug' if you don't mind me asking?"

"Two weeks now." Juliet complained. "On and off, it's driving me nuts! I actually yelled at Gus the other day! Can you imagine? Me?"

"You've yelled before." Lassiter said.

"Not like that." Juliet said, and she visibly became upset. "What if he doesn't like me anymore? !" She started crying.

Lassiter sat across the crying woman wide eyed, everyone in the diner having stopped to stare. "Oh...come now...I'm sure he's still madly in love with you – it'll be alright...O'Hara...buddy?"

"It's not alright!" Juliet snapped. "YOU'RE THE ANGRY ONE NOT ME! I'M MILD MANNERED AND KIND HEARTED GOD DAMMIT!"

Silence rang out in the diner. Lassiter was frozen in his seat. Scared shitless. After a few seconds of nothing, a hipster sitting at the table next to theirs leaned over to elbow Lassiter in the arm. "Apologize man..."

Lassiter took a breath, and he stood up grabbing for his wallet. Pulling a few loose bills from it he quickly paid his and Juliet's tab and without saying a word took Juliet by the arm to guide her out of the diner – before he died of embarrassment.

"I'm sorry." Juliet finally said when they were on the street. "I don't know what came over me."

The two walked, Juliet still a couple feet behind Lassiter. "I have an idea." Lassiter said. He couldn't believe he was doing this. He marched her to the nearest pharmacy. He led her right to the family planning aisle.

"You're serious?" Juliet spoke up. "Carlton, let's just go back to the station, there's no way in hell I'm pregnant!"

Lassiter grabbed for the first test he found. "Right." Lassiter said. "I'll believe it when I see the little negative sign." He shoved the test into her hands.

"You're not going to see it." Juliet insisted, and she moved to put the test back on the shelf. "I don't need to take it."

Lassiter grabbed the test back off the shelf. "I'm buying this, and you're peeing on it. That's an order O'Hara."

Juliet was starting to lose her cool. "I'm not taking it!" She said. "I think, I would know if I was pregnant!"

"Oh really?" Lassiter said. "Then tell me when was your last..." He couldn't finish that sentence. No way. "Um...what I meaning to say is...Are you completely sure that your...Uh..."

Juliet crossed her arms with a knowing grin on her face. "That right there? That's why your first marriage failed. Well that and the whole being gay thing."

Lassiter rolled his eyes. "Just think about it." He urged.

There was a pause as Juliet humoured the other detective. Of course as soon as a good moment of thinking passed she realized he was right, and in a flash she was grabbing at least 10 different tests.

"You don't need all of them." Lassiter said, and he tried putting some back. Juliet snatched them back up.

"Just to be sure!"

A hundred dollars and an hour later Lassiter was back at his desk trying to get a few forms filled out. He barely had the first one finalized when Juliet came back to his desk carrying a small plastic baggy. "Carlton." She said softly.

Lassiter looked up, just as Juliet put the baggy on his desk. The pregnancy test was positive. Juliet sat across from Lassiter just frowning. "9 months of desk work." She sounded truly upset.

"Yeah..." Lassiter said. "But then a baby, I hear they're kind of cool."

"This SUCKS!" Juliet said. "I mean...not the baby part, I love Gus, and the whole being a 'baby mama' bit but I'm a cop! A really good cop! Kids weren't supposed to come until later."

"Yeah..." Lassiter agreed. "On the bright side however, if its girl, you can conspire to drive Guster insane. That's always fun."

Suddenly Juliet's eyes widened, and shined. "Oh my god you're right, and girls run in my family too...Oh...I have to go buy – SO much pink!"

"Er..." Lassiter said. "Before you decorate the nursery you might want to, oh I don't know...Call the father first?"

"Right!" Juliet suddenly remembered. "I have to call Gus! I'll be back!" She happily skipped away. Lassiter actually grinned a bit before turning back to his paperwork. Only to realize that when Juliet had thrown the baggy on his desk, the pregnancy test had slipped out and was now just sitting – on his paperwork.

"Gross..." Lassiter frowned.

"What is?" Henry asked. He was coming back to his desk carrying a fresh cup of coffee. He leaned over Lassiter's desk in time to see the test. "Oh I see. Hey – aren't you engaged to my kid?"

"What?" Lassiter snapped to attention. "I – why yes, I am! I am! That..." He pointed to the test. "It isn't mine."

"It's on your desk." Henry pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's not my kid." Lassiter said. "I swear it's not mine! It can't be mine, it's half black!"

To Lassiter's surprise, Henry actually started laughing. "Oh, I'm writing that one in the wedding book..." The older Spencer was making fun of him.

"You enjoy my suffering don't you?" Lassiter asked.

"Only because I like you Carlton." Henry confessed.

"You do?" Lassiter seemed hopeful.

"Sure do." Henry said. "But that's all you're getting out of me." Henry walked off.

Lassiter sighed and decided he needed more coffee. He moved for the staff lounge area and grabbed a mug when his cell rang.

"Detective Lassiter speaking." Lassiter didn't bother checking his caller ID.

"Heeey..." It was Randall. "Quick question for you!"

"What is it Peterson? Aren't you supposed to be working a case right now?"

"Well." Randall said. "Just answer this for me, on a scale of 1-oh holy shit, hypothetically, how bad would it be if I have reason to believe Kayla Atkinson escaped from prison?"

Lassiter didn't say anything. Instead the mug he was holding got crushed to pieces. He barely felt it, and didn't notice when he started bleeding. "Say that again?" Lassiter urged.

"Well." Randall went on. "I went to the prison today, to interview her."

"Go on." Lassiter said.

"According to the front desk, she was extradited to Hawaii Federal." Randall said.

"Okay." Lassiter said. By now he was catching onto the fact he was bleeding, and cradling his phone between his chin and shoulder he moved to the sink to wash his hand off. "Extradited, its common, what's the problem?"

"Well the officer that signed for her release was Officer Jenny." Randall said.

"This is bad?" Lassiter said.

"Considering she was fired the other day – yeah." Randall said. "It's bad."

"Where's Shawn now?" Lassiter asked.

"Looking at a giant monkey." Randall answered.

"Not funny." Lassiter growled.

"Not joking." Randall countered. "It's an attraction at the mall, he went with Gus."

"So you're at the prison, and Shawn is - at a mall?" Lassiter asked to confirm.

"Yes." Randall said. "With Gus though."

"Alright." Lassiter said. "You're going to start driving since you're closer, and I am going to call him and tell him to park his ass down in the food court and wait."

"What are you doing after?" Randall asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Lassiter huffed. "I'll meet you in Coral Haven, at the station."

"Got it." Randall said. He hung up and promptly dialled Shawn's number.

"Hey!"

Randall breathed a sigh of relief when Shawn answered on the first ring. "Hey yourself."

"Any luck at the prison?" Shawn asked.

"Not really." Randall asked. "You're still at the mall? Right Spencer?"

"No." Shawn said innocently. "I just left; I'm heading to the station to wait for you."

"Wait..." Randall said. "I hear stuff in the background, you're on foot?"

"Yeah." Shawn said again. "Gus had to leave, Jules called him, he left in a hurry, and I think I know why! I'm going to be an uncle! Isn't that awesome? I couldn't say no, I had to let Gus go!"

"You're alone on the street." Randall laughed nervously. "Wonderful. Okay Shawn, you need to turn around and get back to the mall, and stay there."

Based on Randall's tone, Shawn right away knew something was up. He did as he was told and turned back for the mall, but as he did he had to ask. "What's going on?"

"You were right." Randall said. "About Officer Jenny. I went to the prison, Kayla was gone."

Shawn's mouth went dry, he really – REALLY didn't like the sound of that. He started walking faster. "Gone?" Shawn repeated. "Completely Gonzo?"

"Well according to the paper work, she was extradited, but Officer Jenny was the one who signed for it, and since Officer Jenny isn't on the force anymore...It's safe to say you're screwed."

"Great." Shawn cursed. "Just great." He just had to let Gus run to Jules didn't he? "Okay I'm going back to the mall; it'll be about five minutes though."

"Stay on the line." Randall said. "I'm getting into my car now."

Shawn didn't want to seem like a helpless damsel, so he didn't mention to Randall he was glad he was staying on the phone. Though he would've just have rather hung up and called Lassie. "So it's safe to say Officer Jenny is also our murderer?"

"Oh, I'm about 95% sure." Randall said. "After this anyway."

"Now the why." Shawn said. "It can't just be because she's psycho."

"I've known her for years." Randall said. "It doesn't make sense to me either."

"Well when we get her confession, we'll know." Shawn said. He could just see the mall from where he was walking now. "I'm almost there."

"Almost isn't good enough." Randall said. "Walk faster."

"I am." Shawn said. He really felt sick to this stomach. "How long until you get here?"

"About 20 minutes." Randall said. "Then we're heading to the station."

"I was already heading to the station." Shawn said. "Why make me turn around?"

"The station is a good 30 minute walk from where you are." Randall said. "That's too long. I'd rather you in public, indoors."

"Okay." Shawn agreed, and with a note of relief, made it back to the mall. He walked through the entrance. "I'm in the mall."

"Good!" Randall said. "Now get to the food court, and park it."

"Got it." Shawn said. He was still walking a little faster than normal, but if the food court meant safety then Shawn wasn't arguing. He reached the food court in record timing and grabbed the first empty table he saw. "I'm in front of the Burger House." Shawn announced.

"Okay." Randall said. "I'm cheating and flashing my lights so I can get there sooner, I need to let you go so I can drive faster."

"Right." Shawn said. "See you soon."

They hung up. Shawn not liking this sudden turn of events slouched in his eat and dialled for Lassiter. Lassiter sounded so relieved when he answered the phone. "Shawn, you're okay?"

"Yeah." Shawn said. "Parked in the food court, I take it you know what's going on?"

"Randall called me." Lassiter said. "I'm so glad we got to you first."

"Yeah." Shawn said. "Too bad it wasn't before I let Gus go."

"What?" Lassiter paled a bit.

"Gus." Shawn repeated. "Jules called him about the baby – finally, I let him go to spend the day with her because you know...That stuff is important."

"You're alone." That's all Lassiter got from that, if he had been holding another mug – it would've been broken too.

"But I'm in public." Shawn promised. "Not moving until Randy cop gets here."

"Alright, I'm driving." Lassiter said. "Detective Peterson is taking you to the station?"

"Yes." Shawn said.

"I'm meeting you there." Lassiter said.

Shawn went to say something along the lines 'my hero' when a scream rang out through the food court. The scream was quickly followed by more screams, and people scattered. Just as a body came crashing down to the tables. Shawn's breath caught in his throat.

"Shawn? !" Lassiter had heard the screams from the phone. "What's happening? !"

"I..." Shawn was a good few feet away from where the body had landed, and people were evacuating pretty damn fast. "They're here Lassie."

"Where? !" Lassiter asked. "Do you see them?"

"No." Shawn said. "I see their latest victim though."

"Okay new plan." Lassiter said. "Call the police, get away from there, do NOT leave the area. Find a security guard if you have too."

"I'm on it." Shawn said. "I'll call you right back."

"Be quick." Lassiter begged.

Shawn nodded then hung up, he moved to dial for the CHPD but before he could, a security guard was yelling at him. "You! Get out of the area now! Move it!"

Shawn was being ushered out of the food court, he did his best to stay with the crowd, and he reached for his phone again. He dialled the CHPD.

"Chief Anderson."

"Chief!" Shawn hollered. "Great you're there, its Shawn! There was another murder!"

"Why are you yelling?" Chief Anderson asked. "Where's detective Peterson?"

"He's on his way." Shawn explained. "He's coming in from the prison now. Chief – Officer Jenny is the murderer, I'm sure of it."

Chief Anderson didn't say anything. At all.

"Chief!" Shawn called again. "Are you listening to me? Officer Jenny is the murderer, she has been, and she's here! You need to get your guys down here now before you lose her!"

"You lying sack of shit!" Chief Anderson yelled.

"Sir!" Shawn tried.

"Don't sir me." Chief Anderson said. "You're a joke Spencer! Sandra might be a lot of things, but she is not a murderer! Do NOT call me again until you have the real killer!"

"Chief!" Shawn tried again. "I'm not lying!"

But Chief Anderson had hung up. Shawn knew the police had to be coming though; a dead body couldn't just go ignored. Shawn was sure someone else called the police by now. He hoped.

Randall got to the mall, only to arrive to Chaos. Police cars were at every entrance, and crowds of people surrounded the place. Randall swore as loud as he could before exiting the car, and yelling for a uniform. He took out his badge.

"What's happening here?" Randall demanded.

"Dead body." The uniform said. "Dropped like a fly from the higher level, crashed into the food court."

Shit. Randall looked around, he didn't see Shawn anywhere. "Spencer wasn't on scene was he?"

"I haven't seen him." The uniform said.

"Right." Randall said. "I'm going in."

Randall passed the entrance easily and moved straight for the food court. The body was an elderly female, she wasn't stabbed like the others, instead it seemed like she had just been thrown over. The CSIs investigating didn't seem to be finding anything. Randall looked up to the balcony only to see a CSI shrug at him.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Randall grumbled. He dialled for Shawn. He dialled for Shawn again. "Come on Spencer, answer your fucking phone." Randall was getting increasingly pissed. This happened on his watch. Dammit.

Finally Randall had claimed defeat and called Lassiter. If anyone was going to find Shawn, it was him, whether he was on the case or not.

Lassiter wasn't too far off, as soon as he had heard the screams over Shawn's phone Lassiter had stepped on it. And now that Shawn wasn't calling him back, he was driving like a speed demon. He didn't need to be told, he already _–knew-_ Shawn was in danger. His phone rang and he barely managed to answer it.

"Not a good time!" Lassiter hollered.

"Tell me you're close." Randall said.

"You lost him didn't you?" Lassiter yelled. "Useless, I knew there was a reason I didn't trust you! This is all on you Peterson!"

"Yelling won't make it better." Randall barked back. Truthfully he did feel guilty, but being yelled at was something he would never grow accustomed to. "Just drive faster. I'll be at the station."

"Fine!" Lassiter hung up his phone, and he drove faster.

Shawn wasn't sure when, or how, but he had been knocked out. The strike had come from behind; it was strong, and sharp. Stars had exploded behind his eyes and he went down like a rag doll. As he opened his eyes, he remembered vaguely the dead body at the mall, and having had a few jumbled phone conversations since then. He remembered then that he was supposed to call Lassie back.

"Lassie!" Shawn tried to sit up, but learned quickly he couldn't. The ground under him was cold, and as Shawn moved everything seemed to crack. He winced and went back down. "Shit..." Shawn didn't think he was bleeding, but his legs were killing him. He just managed to over to lay on his back to take in his surroundings. He was in a square room, no windows, one light in the middle of the ceiling, and one steel door. More than likely locked. "How did they even get me out of the mall..." Shawn groaned, and he tried to sit up again. Not happening.


	11. Dead Squirrels

**A/N: ****This chapter was a long time coming. I humbly apologize for my absence. Please enjoy!**

**Dead Squirrels**

Shawn wasn't sure how long he was in that room for, he was awake but he couldn't move. How much longer would it be? Shawn didn't know where he was, and he had no way of defending himself. He thought this time he'd die for sure. Shawn's insides cringed a bit, and his mind kept wandering to Lassie. They hadn't even made it a year, and now it was all going to be over.

"Shawn?"

Shawn tensed. Officer Jenny's voice was soft, and sounded really apologetic. Shawn just managed to lift his head to see her standing in the door way. She was still dressed in a police uniform. Shawn didn't say anything to her. If she was going to kill him, he prayed she did it quick.

"Say something." Officer Jenny urged lightly. "Please."

Shawn didn't know what to say, and he had no idea why Officer Jenny was acting this way. She was begging him to say something, so he said the first thing that came to mind. "You're crazy."

At that point in time, Officer Jenny just started crying. Really, really hard. "It wasn't supposed to end this way." Jenny cried. "I'm so sorry."

"Then let me go." Shawn urged. "It doesn't have too."

Officer Jenny didn't say anything; she walked closer to Shawn with tears streaming down her cheeks. The closer she got, the worse Shawn felt. His mind was racing to act, to do – something, but his body wasn't letting him.

"It's a horrible feeling Shawn." Jenny went on to say. "I don't think you appreciated how hard I tried...I tried so hard, until I couldn't handle it anymore...Getting Kayla was my last option... Because it just isn't going to work."

Jenny wasn't making sense. At all. She was shaking and giving soft sobs. Shawn's jaw clenched considerably – what was she going to do to him?

"I was counting on you Shawn, I trusted you. Why couldn't you let me in?" As she said this, Officer Jenny got right on the ground with him. She snuggled into Shawn's side – lifting his arm to drape over her shoulders, her arms locking around his waist. "You're my hero Spencer; I just wanted to be as good as you."

If Shawn couldn't move before, he was frozen now. Jenny's embrace was tight, and overly intimate. The inside of Shawn's stomach was turning. He was honestly a little terrified, and very unsure. Officer Jenny clung onto him like a lover but her sobs and her tears were anything but loving. She lay there wrapped around him, crying uncontrollably into the Shawn's shoulder.

"The first Murder." Jenny said quietly. "Was a coincidence. Margaret was crazy, she hated Renee. With such passion. I wasn't expecting to meet you there, I was just on another job...Then there you were. The psychic I read about, the one who inspired me to attend the academy. Even though my dad didn't want me to."

Her dad?

"Chief Anderson." Shawn managed to get out. He still couldn't move.

"Yeah." Jenny sniffled. "He never believed I could do it. He always told me I was too naive, too fragile. All I ever wanted to do was be like him, but he told me no. Then I found you – and your stories were so brave, so amazing. I just wanted to impress you, I did it all for you."

"You murdered." Shawn tried reasoning with her. "I don't do that."

"For you!" Officer Jenny said again. "Nora...The groomsmen..."

"Riley." Shawn said. "You nailed him to my door."

"For you!" Officer Jenny said again. Her grip on Shawn tightened again. Just enough to make Shawn's breath catch in his throat. "I wanted to investigate, wanted to prove to you how good I was, so you could tell my dad. Then you would've been hired full time, we could've been partners. We could've been amazing!"

"Tell me who." Shawn said. "Tell me who you were going to pin the murders on...Tell me who."

"Margaret at first." Jenny said. "She already killed Renee, what was a few more?"

Shawn managed to make himself feel just a little more comfortable. He was getting a confession. It might not be worth a lot considering he might not be getting out of this, but if worse came to worse, he knew the truth.

"Tell me how Kayla got involved. Why did you connect this to the Atkinson case?"

"It was so easy." Jenny said. "The murders were so similar in nature, and Margaret was part of the same group as Kayla...I went to see her, I understood her. We became friends. At first I was going to leave her in jail...but then...nothing went the way I wanted. Margaret killed herself and I never got my chance to prove myself. The case was ending. I was fired. I was so angry. I wanted you to just go away...But I love you too much to do it myself. So I pulled a few more strings, and got Kayla out. She has her own reasons for wanting you to die, so I'm going to let her." Jenny snuggled into Shawn further. "But not yet. I just want to lay here with you for awhile."

If this wasn't slow torture, Shawn didn't know what was.

"They could be anywhere." Lassiter's voice was thick with a fine mix of anger and worry. They had absolutely no trace of Shawn, and an over haul of the mall revealed nothing.

"We'll find him." Randall tried to be encouraging, but truthfully he was starting to feel on edge. This happened on his watch, and he was willing to bet his life's savings that Lassiter wasn't above strangling him to death if anything happened to Shawn.

"We better." Lassiter said.

The two detectives were situated outside of the mall as the search crew were packing up. Lassiter's fists were eternally clenched to the point his knuckles were translucent. His panic had long reached boiling point, and he was at an eerie calm, though anyone could tell that one wrong word could send him into a rage filled with profanity and gun shots.

"Backtrack." Randall tried. "Maybe if we search all the crime scenes, we'll find him."

"Well your Chief so kindly kicked me off the case, so you're going to have to lead the way." Lassiter grumbled.

"Well we'll rule out Nora's hotel room. There's no way they got back in there." Randall said.

"Which leaves us with?" Lassiter asked.

"Margaret's house, and the Psych officer." Randall said.

"Great!" Lassiter said exasperated, and reaching for his phone he started walking.

"What are you doing?" Randall asked.

"Calling my guys." Lassiter said. "You and I are going to Margaret's, and my guys are going to scope out the Psych building."

Shawn wasn't at either of those locations. He didn't know where he was. He did know he was slowly getting feeling back in his legs. But he didn't say anything. Officer Jenny was still snuggled into his side and mumbling incoherently. Her grip had tightened on him considerably, and she seemed reluctant to let go. Shawn wondered if he could milk this.

"Sandra." Shawn said quietly. "You don't actually want me to die do you?"

"It's not my choice anymore." Jenny said. "Kayla has her own reasons."

"Kayla is a bad person." Shawn said. "You were a good cop; cops don't listen to bad people."

"I was until you came along." Jenny said. "All I wanted to do was prove myself to you and you ruined me!"

"I didn't do anything." Shawn said. "Sandra please."

"Stop talking to me!" Jenny snapped. "It's time." She was on her feet, leaving Shawn on the floor. "I'm leaving, and Kayla's going to come and end this."

Officer Jenny left the room. She made her way back to the main floor of the house they were in. Kayla wasn't in the living room. "Kayla its time!" Jenny shouted. She didn't get an answer.

"Kayla?" Jenny tried the kitchen. Oh no. No. No. Jenny went for the stairs, launching up them in a frenzy. "Kayla!" A search of the bedrooms revealed Kayla had bailed. Jenny had taken too long in the basement with Shawn. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit! This wasn't happening. Officer Jenny had to handle Shawn herself now. Shit. Shit! Jenny made her way back down to the kitchen, grabbing a knife with a shaky hand. Could she do it? She was doubting herself. She heard it then. A scuffling in the living room. "Kayla?" It better be her. Jenny went back to the living room, only it wasn't Kayla, it was Shawn making his way for the door. A glimpse out the window and Jenny could see that Randall had shown up. NO! No! It was not ending like this. Jenny would be caught, put in jail, her father would hate her forever, Shawn would never look at her again.

"NO!" Jenny heard herself scream. She charged, as fast and as hard as she could, the knife came up, then came down right into Shawn's back. There was a moment where Jenny just breathed, she pulled the knife out just as quickly, and watched as Shawn fell without saying a word. Or did he? Jenny was sure at one point he had called for Lassiter. Lassiter who had been coming up the driveway. Lassiter who only looked at Jenny with terrifying eyes, his gun coming up to aim. Even though it happened in seconds, it felt like an eternity between the time Jenny had stabbed Shawn and the time Lassiter fired his gun, Jenny went flying back, and landed in a heap inside the house.

Officer Jenny had left the room, and Shawn had his chance. With feeling back in his legs, he was up, and didn't even waste time brushing himself off. He was grabbing for the door pulling it open, the door led to a narrow staircase that was in serious need of an update. Shawn took them two at a time regardless and didn't stop until he reached the top – only to come right into Davis Tuly's old living room. Hope swelled up in Shawn's chest – he was in Santa Barbara. Did he care how? Nope! He was getting the hell out of there. He pulled open the door, and relief flooded him once more as he saw Randall's car with Lassiter getting out of the passenger seat and coming towards him.

"Lassie!" Shawn was so happy, and he took his first steps out of the house, about to take off in a run.

"NO!" Jenny's blood curdling scream came from behind Shawn, and before Shawn realized what was happening, a sharp pain overcame his whole body. Shawn froze, unsure of what happened. His vision went blank; the last thing he saw was Lassiter break into a run for him.

Margaret's house was empty. Randall and Lassiter were at their wit's end. They exited after about ten minutes of searching and coming up empty handed.

"Now what?" Randall asked. While inside Margaret's house they had gotten a call from McNab. The Psych office was empty as well. They were at a standstill. "We don't know what car they were in, they could be anywhere."

"I know!" Lassiter snapped. "God dam it Peterson do you ever shut up? !"

"I'm sorry." Randall said. Lassiter didn't respond. "Lassiter?"

Lassiter was hit with an epiphany; pieces of the case were coming together, leading him right to Shawn. The detective kicked himself for not seeing it earlier. Kayla. Son of a bitch! It should've been the first place they scoped out!

"Lassiter?" Randall tried again.

"I know where they are." Lassiter said. "We have to get back to Santa Barbara." He took off in a long stride leaving Randall behind. "If you don't hurry I'm leaving without you!" Lassiter snapped.

At this point Randall was just a ride along, he had no qualms giving Lassiter the keys and letting him drive like a mad man back to Santa Barbara. As soon as they were within city limits, Lassiter was pulling into smaller streets, where the houses were run down and the sun seemed to shine a little less. Randall was confused.

"Where exactly are we going?" Randall asked, but Lassiter didn't answer, instead he just hit the break causing the car to jerk violently. Randall had to brace himself so that he wouldn't smack his head off the dashboard. "Are you going crazy?"

"Just a little." Lassiter was already pulling his gun from its holster. He stepped out of the car and looked up at Davis' Tuly's house. There wasn't a car in site. Still. Shawn had to be here.

Lassiter took a step, just the front door was ripped open, and Shawn popped his head through. Safe and sound. Lassiter was never so happy in his entire life.

"Lassie!"

Shawn sounded relieved too, but that was short lived as Lassiter saw Jenny behind him. The detective broke into a run.

"NO!" Jenny screamed and the knife she had grabbed from the kitchen came down into Shawn's back. Lassiter watched horrified as Shawn's eyes widened and he fell.

"Shawn!" Lassiter had his gun pointed and all bets were off. He fired. Jenny went down. Lassiter was at Shawn's side faster then he thought possible, and was holding Shawn up. "Shawn, Shawn!"

"Hey." Shawn responded weekly. "Glad you came." His eyes started to close.

"No – no dammit!" Lassiter was not about to let him slip away. "Stay with me Spencer, we're getting you help." He turned briefly to Peterson. "Ambulance! Now!"

"It'll be okay." Shawn huffed a bit. "Really." His eyes closed again.

"Eyes open Shawn come on." Lassiter was shaking a bit.

Randall had called the ambulance but while waiting he had gone into the house to clear it. Officer Jenny was down, but Kayla had long bailed and Randall had no choice but to announce her MIA.

The ambulance arrived, and Lassiter wasn't in cop mode anymore, he disregarded Jenny's fallen form like it was nothing but trash. Randall was the one who had to explain to the paramedics what happened as Lassiter refused to leave Shawn's side. Jenny hadn't left the knife in when she stabbed, Lassiter had sacrificed his blazer to stop the bleeding, having taken it off entirely to press it against Shawn's back. There was too much blood. It was scaring Lassiter shitless.

All too soon the paramedics were pushing him back so they could do their job. 10 Months. This same thing had happened not even a year ago. Lassiter's stomach was sinking, and he felt so small. Shawn wasn't moving. This time around Spencer wasn't even moving his fingers to show he was still hanging around in there. The ambulance doors closed.

Randall at this point wasn't sure what to do. Did he call CHPD or SBPD? This case was all over the place. He sighed. At this point not sure of anything. Was Shawn going to be okay?

A second ambulance had come to retrieve Jenny, and Randall had noted Lassiter didn't take prisoners. If she lived it would be a damn miracle – sort of. With nothing else to do, Randall took in a deep breath. Going over to Lassiter. "Hey. Detective. Why don't you go sit in the car? I'll call Spencer's entourage and have them all meet us at the hospital, then we'll drive over okay?"

Lassiter just nodded, he had no words right now. All the anger and anxiety he had about Shawn being grabbed again was a bit too much. He went back to the car, way too shaky to drive. He watched out the window as Randall dialled the first number.

"Hi Gus? It's Randall. ...Are you sitting down?"

Gus hated his life. Like really – really hated his life. When Randall called him he was sitting with Juliet in pure bliss, discussing baby names, and whether or not they were okay with birthing a child out of wedlock. They hadn't been together that long, so even though Gus wanted to play the marriage card, Juliet seemed reluctant.

"I'm okay with whatever you want to do." Gus said. "Seriously its fine."

"But if you want to get married, who am I to say no?" Jules retorted. "I'm having your kid."

"True." Gus said. "So let's get married."

"But what if it's too soon?" Juliet suddenly said. Gus had never been this happy to run into a brick wall.

"If you don't want to, I'm okay with that." Gus repeated.

"Yeah but you want too." Juliet said. "I feel bad."

"Then marry me." Gus said.

"Maybe not." Juliet said. "It hasn't been that long."

They were running around in circles, and even though Gus was enjoying himself, he was starting to look for a way out of this particular conversation topic. A compromise or a distraction would be good. Of course that's when his phone rang.

"Burton Guster." Gus answered his phone giving his full name; he wasn't expecting it to be Randall.

"Hi Gus? It's Randall...Are you sitting down?"

Gus listened, and nodded. An odd twist in his chest forming. Marriage one second, stab wounds the next. He hung up, looking to Juliet who knew by his expression something had happened to Shawn. Again.

"I'll get the car keys." She said quietly, and she left the room.

Henry was the next one to be called on Randall's list. Though Randall didn't have his number. In order to call him he had to go through the police station. He never personally conversed with Spencer's father, he was expecting Shawn but older, so when a low impatient voice answered the phone, Randall for a second froze.

"Spencer." Henry said upon answering.

"Uh – hello sir." Randall said. "My name is Detective Peterson, I regret to inform you that your son Shawn was injured in the line of duty." Randall kicked himself for suddenly becoming so formal. He used the same line he used on young officer's parents whenever they were hurt, which was odd because Shawn wasn't a cop. Though he was technically on duty. Right?

"Just tell me where." Was all Henry responded – well he was taking this call rather well. "Then tell me where Carlton is so I can ring his neck." Maybe not.

Randall informed Henry that Shawn was being taken to hospital, and as soon as Henry agreed to meet there, Randall hung up and was back at his car. Heat. He suddenly realized he was in a lot of heat for this. Not only did Randall and Lassiter fail to call for backup when they realized Shawn was in Santa Barbara, but Lassiter hadn't thought twice about taking down Chief Anderson's daughter. There was also the part where a homophobic murderer was once again on the loose. Randall didn't say anything to Lassiter, but the entire time they drove to the hospital, Randall was mentally kissing his badge goodbye.

The hospital waiting room was crowded already; Lassiter and Randall had no place to sit. Though it seemed Lassiter didn't care, as soon as they were through the doors the taller detective was on a mission, he went straight to the nurse's station pulling out his badge.

"I'm here accompanying Shawn Spencer who was brought in around 6PM."

"You got it." The nurse replied as sweet as can be. She typed in the necessary information. Lassiter was expecting to hear that Shawn was in a recovering room or in the O.R at least. Suddenly the nurse's face was a bit ashen. "You said 6PM right?"

"Yes." Lassiter responded.

"It might not be him." The nurse said. "But I'm getting two ambulance numbers here, normally I'm not qualified to disclose any information, but since you're waving your badge at me. One of the ambulance patients were announced dead on arrival."

Lassiter's head spun. Then spun again. Oh this couldn't be good. What did he do now? Did he yell? Fire his gun again? He sure as hell wasn't about to start crying infront of the nurse's station. Smoking. Yes. Lassiter was going to take up smoking. Lots of smoking. Only smoking was bad.

"Carlton!" Henry had spotted Lassiter at the nurse's station the second he got in. He wanted news on his son, and he wanted it now. He made his way over to Lassiter who was still in the middle of a third break down that day. Not that Henry knew that. "What's the word?"

"I don't know." Lassiter managed to spit out. "Two ambulance numbers, both punched in at six, one patient announced dead on arrival. I just – I just...I have to go." Lassiter turned to leave, but Henry grabbed his arm. Neither man wanting to admit they were both equally afraid.

"You're not going anywhere." Henry said. "Any minute now Guster and his pregnant girlfriend are going to come stampeding in, and I need at least one more semi level headed idiot to help me take care of their blubbering mouths."

It was Henry trying to be nice. It was working. Kind of. Sure enough not even ten minutes later and Gus and Jules where there, bombarding Lassiter with questions. What happened? Why wasn't anyone called? Who did it? They were going a mile a minute.

"Okay!" Randall had broken it up. "If everyone would just follow me to a hallway. I will explain everything!"

The group fell into line, and they all left the waiting room looking at Randall expectantly.

"Earlier this morning, I had plans to visit Kayla Atkinson in prison. To see if I could gain any new information. When I arrived, I learned that she had been extradited by Officer Jenny, who had been let go beforehand. I knew right away it was a jail break. I called Shawn to ensure his safety. Shawn announced he was at the mall alone, because well-." Randall looked to Gus and Jules. "You two know why. I instructed Shawn to stay at the mall until I arrived. I'm not sure what happened after that call, but when I got there, police were everywhere, there had been a murder in the foodcourt, when we searched the area, Shawn was nowhere to be found."

"Why wasn't he announced missing?" Henry cut in. "How the hell do you operate up there?"

"I understand you're angry sir, and I take full responsibility for the lack of action taken by Coral Haven Police. This is the point where I recruited Detective Lassiter."

"Who didn't call anyone either." Juliet pointed out. She gave her partner a stern look.

"Not entirely true." Lassiter said. "I called McNab. While Peterson and I checked Margaret's house, I had him snoop around the Psych office to see if anyone was there. Which there was no one."

"He didn't want to cause a panic." Henry said. "I admire that."

If this had been a lighter situation, Lassiter would've patted himself on the back from finally earning some praise from the elder Spencer.

"Finally." Randall cut in. "Lassiter realized the full connection between this case and the Atkinson case. We came into Santa Barbara as quickly as possible."

"Ending the story." Henry urged.

"We drove straight to the Tuly residence where Kayla had held Shawn before; it seemed their guard was down long enough Shawn could reach the front door. However as soon as Jenny saw him on the verge of escape, she attacked him. Stabbing him in the back. Shawn went down. The rest is history."

Silence fell over the group. Still no one was sure if Shawn was okay or not, and no one wanted to jump to any conclusions. The whole thing was one big rushed mess, like a chapter in a book that was a long time coming, but a big disappointment. No one wanted to turn the page without first being assured there'd be a happy ending.

Lassiter had had it. He backed away from the group finally, deciding to go for a walk. He broke into long strides, needing to get away.

"Carlton." Juliet called, but she was quickly silenced by Gus.

"Let him go for now." Gus urged. Truthfully Gus wanted to take off too, he wanted to find whatever room Shawn was in dead or not, but he couldn't leave Juliet either.

Lassiter knew exactly where he was going. He went straight down to the morgue. To see for himself.

"Excuse me." Lassiter grabbed the first person in scrubs he saw. "You recently had a new arrival correct?"

"Oh yes!" The doctor looked all too pleased about that. Lassiter showed his badge, and the doctor ushered him in. "A small one too, though not a child, or else I wouldn't be smiling, more like a squirrel."

"A squirrel?" Lassiter said. "Female?"

"Yes female." The doctor confirmed.

A squirrel like dead female had been punched in at 6PM. Relief washed over Lassiter; he lost his train of thought and gave the strange doctor a good tight hug. "Woody you beautiful bastard!"

"Uh..." The doctor froze. "My name's Dr. Brianson."

There was a beat of silence. Lassiter cleared his throat and took a step back brushing the poor man off. "Yes. Yes it is."

In an awkward stance Lassiter gave a curt nod before taking off out of the morgue. Shawn was alive! Alive!

Now he just had to find out what room Shawn was in.


	12. Chapter in a Hospital

**A/N: **Long overdue. I'm so sorry! But, for what it's worth, now that I'm taking longer to finish chapters, I feel like they're becoming more worth the read. I could be wrong, that's up for you guys to decide. Enjoy!

**Chapter in a Hospital**

Shawn was in a lot of pain. Every time he felt his body make a small movement, he would seize up and for a moment be breathless. He'd force himself to stay perfectly still afraid of moving again. He wasn't sure where he was, he just knew that if he kept his eyes closed –he'd be safe. He was safe. Now if only he could get rid of the constant tingling going up and down his back.

"Shawn?"

The voice was soothing, but a little hard edged, and really intrusive. Shawn did his best to ignore it.

"Shawn?"

"Shut Up." Shawn managed to get out. "I'm sleeping."

"Open your eyes dammit."

Well then. Shawn couldn't really argue there. He tried his eyes, but only managed to open them slightly. He saw a blurred out figure and light – so much light. Too much in fact. Shawn's eyes squeezed shut.

"Shawn come on." Henry sighed. Shawn wasn't completely out of it, but he wasn't completely there either. Henry wasn't sure when Shawn would come to, but he hoped it would be soon. If the older man had hair it would all be gray no thanks to his son.

"Why do you always step in?" Henry had to wonder. He also had to wonder what screwed up deity decided Shawn deserved two major run-ins with crazed murderers twice in one year. Henry took a second to look over his boy. Lying on his stomach, the stitches still fresh with a bandage pressed over them. He had never seen Shawn so white and still. Henry hoped he'd never have to see it again.

Lassiter had returned to where the group had been only to find they were no longer there – shit. Where did they all go?

"Excuse me?" Lassiter grabbed the first person in scrubs. "I'm looking for Shawn Spencer?"

"Oh." The nurse said casually. "304."

Lassiter tilted his head, getting the room, number seemed too easy. Whatever. Lassiter would worry about that later. Lassiter thanked the nurse and took off. He found the room soon enough, and found everyone but Henry standing in the hall.

"Welcome back." Juliet greeted. "Update?"

"Please." Lassiter agreed.

"It was a deep wound." Juliet said. "Some – not major nerve damage."

"Okay." Lassiter could live with that.

"He was stitched up pretty good." Gus said. "He's on a morphine drip for the pain, so he's not responding to anybody."

"He'll be okay though." That's all Lassiter cared about. "Where's detective Peterson?"

"The station." Juliet answered. "Kayla's still at large, we had to put a search out for her."

"Okay." Lassiter was saying that a lot today. "Good, I'm glad he thought of that."

After a few minutes the door opened and Henry stepped out.

"How is he?" Lassiter only felt a little embarrassed he was the first one to jump on Henry for information.

"Out cold." Henry said. "If you're lucky he'll tell you to shut up."

Heh. Lassiter gestured to the door. "May I?"

"Knock yourself out." Henry answered. Lassiter gave a nod and passed Henry to go into the room.

Hospital rooms – were always gross. The wall was always some pale puke colour that was supposed to be soothing. The curtains were always ghost white, only being matched by the paleness of the patients. Lassiter hated hospitals. Period.

However none of that mattered to him as his eyes finally managed to drift to Shawn who hadn't moved.

Lassiter sighed, he felt an array of emotion, but out of all of them he mostly felt guilt. Guilt was definitely the biggest one. Another sigh and Lassiter was at Shawn's bed side lowering himself into a rather uncomfortable chair.

"Lassie?"

Shawn's voice scared the ever living out of Lassiter. The detective jumped to action. He looked to Shawn's face; Shawn's eyes had opened, but only barely.

"Lassie is that you?" Shawn's eyes closed again.

"Yeah." Lassiter replied. "Yeah its me."

Shawn didn't respond after that. The silence was deafening. "Shawn?" Lassiter tried again.

Shawn had fallen back under. It was horrible to think someone like Shawn could only have enough strength to say a few words – but Lassiter supposed a few words had to be better than no words. Still. Shawn's voice in those few seconds had been so small, and strained. Lassiter's chest twisted in various directions – god did it ever hurt.

Lassiter leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Lassiter was tired, and it was just now catching up with him. Soon the detective was falling into a fitful sleep.

"Lassie! Lassie wake up!"

Lassiter was being shaken awake. When he opened his eyes, Shawn was looking at him with big bright eyes and that tell tale smile.

"Good morning!" Shawn greeted. "How did you sleep?"

"Uh -..." Lassiter said. "Good?"

"Great!" Shawn was psyched. He then made himself comfortable on Lassiter's lap.

"Shawn – what uh – what are you doing?" Lassiter was confused.

"Making myself a warmer place to rest." Shawn responded, he then hid his face, nuzzling it into the crook of Lassiter's neck. Lassiter found himself placing his hand on Shawn's back to hold him closer, only to flinch it away. Lassiter glanced down and saw that Shawn's wound had ripped open, Shawn was bleeding onto Lassiter's hand.

"Your stitches." Lassiter pointed out. "We need to call a doctor."

"Nonsense!" Shawn said excitedly. "It's all good!"

"You're bleeding!" Lassiter showed Shawn his hand. Shawn just waved it off like it was nothing and kissed Lassiter on the cheek.

"And you're over protective." Shawn chuckled.

Lassiter noted with a bit of panic Shawn's entire back was soaked red. He grabbed Shawn's upper arms and forced him to stand, standing up with him.

"Spencer, you're getting a doctor – now!" Lassiter was guiding Shawn back to the bed. "Lie on your stomach, I'm getting a doctor – don't move!"

"Roger!" Shawn gave a cheerful thumbs up. Lassiter went for the door to pull it open. It was locked.

"Dammit." Lassiter growled. He started trying the door over and over, then knocking on it repeatedly. "Hello! Hey guys! Come on open up! He's bleeding!"

"Lassie relax." Shawn encouraged. "You're too uptight about this, who cares about a little blood?"

"I do!" Lassiter snapped. "I care! We're supposed to be growing old together you moron!"

"Hey, name calling." Shawn sounded defensive.

"Spencer you just don't get it do you?" Lassiter said. "I want you safe, and not bleeding to death in a hospital bed."

Shawn didn't answer. Didn't even make a sound.

"Shawn!" Lassiter hollered, he turned to face the bed, only to note Shawn wasn't in the room. "Shawn!" The only trace of Shawn was the blood stain on the bed, and the dried blood on Lassiter's bed. "Shawn!"

The window hadn't been opened, there was no way he got passed Lassiter. Shawn was just gone. "Shawn!" Lassiter was at the bed, ripping at the sheets as if he'd find Shawn hiding. "Shawn!" He felt tears stinging behind his eyes. "Shawn – come back!"

A hand clamped down on Lassiter's shoulder – good and firm, it jerked, forcing Lassiter to turn around. Everything stopped then and Lassiter's eyes snapped open. It was a dream.

There was a moment where Lassiter couldn't breathe. He was still in Shawn's room, uncomfortable cramped in that little chair. With a few pulls and a good number of cracks Lassiter managed to stand. Shawn was still sleeping. Lassiter bent over the bed and kissed the top of Shawn's head. "I'll be back." Lassiter promised. He turned and left the room.

The hallway was deserted, and Lassiter preferred it that way. He was still shaking from his dream – nightmare more like it. He didn't want anybody to see him.

"Detective Lassiter!"

That voice was all too cheery for Lassiter's comfort, he glanced up and saw McNab in full uniform approaching him.

"McNab?" Lassiter was confused. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm a guard." McNab said. "Detective Peterson told the Chief everything; she's taking precaution while we start the search for Kayla. She sent me to stay by Shawn's room."

Relief. Lassiter was so relieved. "Seriously?" Lassiter had to ask to be sure. "She's not mad?"

"More confused than anything. She understood it was a case for a different police department, but she's perplexed as to why back up wasn't called on that end either." McNab explained.

"Fantastic." If Lassiter had been anymore wrung out, he probably would've hugged the younger cop. Not that he would ever do that. Ever. "Well okay, his room is here. I'll be back momentarily, I need coffee."

"You're staying with me?" McNab said.

"I'm not leaving." Lassiter said. "So – yeah."

McNab seemed so pleased.

"Tell me what you want." Lassiter said. "I'll get you a coffee too."

McNab suddenly looked like he had graduated. He tumbled over his words giving Lassiter his coffee order, and Lassiter just nodded tiredly and took off down the hall.

Coffee. Coffee coffee, and more coffee. Where Lassiter was concerned, it was the cure for everything. He reached the coffee bar in the waiting room and grabbed two cups from the get go, filling them both up to the rim.

"They're not both for you are they?"

Lassiter looked up; of course it had to be Henry. "No." Lassiter said. "One's for McNab. He's been put on watch on Shawn's room."

"Uh huh." Henry said. "No change?"

"No change." Lassiter said. "He came around once – said maybe 5 words and that was it."

"Sounds about right." Henry said. "...I couldn't help but notice. He's still not wearing a ring."

"Ah." Lassiter clenched his jaw. "No. He's not."

"Do you even have one?" Henry asked.

"I do." Lassiter said. "You saw me buying it, remember?"

"True." Henry said. "Didn't I tell you it was too soon though?"

"You think that stopped me?" Lassiter challenged. To his surprise Henry grinned – it scared Lassiter a little bit.

"You're more like each other than I thought." Henry said.

"Heh." Lassiter picked up the two cups after he finished mixing them. "Well, I don't normally procrastinate this much. The ring is still in my stupid pocket if you must know."

"You haven't had the time to give it to him." Henry said. "I understand, he's been running back and forth from here and Coral Haven for weeks now."

"Yeah." Lassiter said. "Even spent the night up there." He remembered the phone call from the other night, it had been so late, and even though Shawn didn't admit it, Lassiter could tell Shawn had been afraid. He wondered then how scared Shawn must have been back at Davis' house for the second time. If anything was said or done to him before he was stabbed? It was a troubling thought. "I have to go bring this to McNab." Lassiter made an excuse to escape Henry's knowing gaze. He practically bolted from the waiting area and went back upstairs.

"Detective!" McNab greeted. "You're back good! Shawn's awake!"

"He is?" Lassiter suddenly hated himself for walking away. "Here." He shoved the coffee into McNab's hand and went back into the room, where Shawn had his eyes open and seemed more alert then he did before.

"Damn sir." Shawn said. "You look just like this cop I did a strip tease for once – you wouldn't happen to know where he is would you?"

"Ha." Lassiter said. "You're awake."

"I am." Shawn agreed. He still hadn't moved though. "Back is killing me though."

"Don't rush it." Lassiter urged, and he squatted down to give Shawn a proper kiss. "You scared the crap out of everybody."

"Mostly you though right?" Shawn asked.

"I'm not dignifying that with an answer." Lassiter said.

"Mostly you." Shawn grinned.

"Fine." Lassiter gave a frown. There was a beat of silence between them. Now or never right? "Shawn do you remember the other day when we – well – when I proposed?"

"Yes." Shawn said. "Is that why my back hurts? Did we rock the bed enough you threw out my back?"

"No." Lassiter actually managed a smile. "That's not why."

"Ah." Shawn said. "Then I'm not interested."

"Well." Lassiter said. "We'll talk more on that later." Without really thinking, he reached into his pocket and grabbed the ring box. He kneeled by Shawn's bedside as he opened it. "This is yours."

The ring wasn't anything fancy at all, just a simple silver band – it was classic. Just like Lassie. Shawn's face broke into a slow smile, he was so happy even though he was so tired. "You did that wrong."

"What?" Lassiter could tell Shawn was playing with him. "Is that so?"

"Mmhmm." Shawn said. "You should've broken my hand."

"Why the hell would I do that?" Lassiter asked.

"Because." Shawn continued. "Then you could've hidden the ring in the cast. Then when the cast came off you could have been all 'surprise! We've been engaged for six weeks!' It would've been hilarious."

"You're right." Lassiter said. "Funny as hell. Especially the part where I'm not there to see the look on your face because your father and Gus beat me to death for hurting you."

"Oh." Shawn responded. "Right."

"Tired?" Lassiter asked.

"Exhausted." Shawn admitted. "But I've been out of it for a long time haven't I?"

"Long enough." Lassiter said. "But, I'm willing to forgive you and let you sleep as long as you want."

"So chivalrous." Shawn teased.

"Well." Lassiter said. "I'll be around. So sleep."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Shawn agreed, and soon he was letting himself drift off. Lassiter exited the room where McNab was standing proudly. McNab offered Lassiter back his coffee.

"I already drank mine." McNab said. "Yours is still kind of warm."

"Thanks." Lassiter said. He took the cup back and stalked back down the hall. He was going to go back to the waiting room to announce Shawn's change, before he made it down the hall his phone rang. Of course it did. "Detective Lassiter." Lassiter had his phone at his ear.

"It's me." Randall sounded off; Lassiter could hear cars in the background.

"Weren't you at the station?" Lassiter asked.

"I was." Randall said. "But then I decided to head back to the hospital, I'm about two blocks away."

"Ah." Lassiter said. "Then why are you calling me?"

"I found Officer Jenny's car." Randall said. "Two blocks away parked in front of a corner store."

"Abandoned?" Lassiter asked.

"I doubt it." Randall said. "I had to break in."

"Find anything?" Lassiter asked.

"Her gun, a couple rounds, a butterfly knife, nothing aside from that." Randall said. "But judging on the location, she isn't far off."

"Got it." Lassiter said. "You wore gloves when you broke in?"

"I did." Randall confirmed.

"Good." Lassiter said. "Call a couple of my guys for back up, do a thorough search of the car and secure the area. We already have a guy on Shawn's room so I'm not too worried on that front."

"Sounds fare." Randall said. "You know when this is all over, you're never – ever allowed to give me orders again you know that right?"

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having fun." Lassiter took a second to joke, but then quickly realized he was acting unprofessional. He clammed back up. "Get on it." Lassiter hung up.

"Right." Randall hung up and looked back to Officer Jenny's car. Kayla couldn't be far off. Randall sighed, if his assumption on Kayla was right, she wasn't about to go waltzing into the hospital – she was smart. Vicious. But smart. Randall reached for his phone, and dialled for his Chief.

"Chief Anderson." Randall greeted. "I'm sorry sir, I'm in Santa Barbara."

"You're supposed to be investigating the mall murder back here." Chief Anderson said. "Explain."

"Shawn wasn't lying to you sir." Randall said. "It was Officer Jenny and Kayla Atkinson."

Randall could hear Chief Anderson grit his teeth over the phone.

"You insist on following that fraud around?" Chief Anderson accused. "Peterson, you're a good detective, but that psychic knows shit for shit. Get back to Coral Haven. Now."

"Sir." Randall said. "Shawn Spencer was at the mall when the murder happened. He was told to stay on scene until I arrived. He was taken from scene by Officer Jenny – in Uniform. Detective Lassiter and I found him in the home of Davis Tuly where Officer Jenny and Kayla Atkinson were holding him. Before we could secure him, Officer Jenny stabbed him in the back with a kitchen knife."

Chief Anderson paused, his resolve was falling away, at this point he had to ask. "Just how good of a detective is this Lassiter guy anyway?"

"Pretty good." Randall said. "As soon as Officer Jenny raised her weapon Lassiter discharged his weapon. Officer Jenny was taken to hospital along with Shawn Spencer."

Chief Anderson didn't say a word. He hung up the phone promptly. Randall blinked – was it something he said? Shaking his head Randall grabbed his phone again and called the Santa Barbara police department for backup on this car. He just hoped he was right, and that Kayla didn't try her luck at the hospital – it would make finding her so much easier but it would put so many people in danger.

As soon as SBPD showed up and started searching the car more thoroughly, Randall hung back, and watched with his arms crossed. All the word the SBPD were doing was no different then what he did in Coral Haven. Inwardly and tiredly Randall sighed, he decided to head back to the hospital.

"Gus, we don't have to stay here." Juliet's voice was soft; she spoke quietly not to disturb anyone else sitting in the waiting room. "You're tired, it's obvious, we can go back to your place for a little while and relax."

"No." Gus made his answer perfectly clear. "I can't, not yet." Gus didn't really know how to explain himself.

Juliet seemed to understand very quickly though. "It's not your fault." She tried. "You leaving did not cause Shawn to get hurt."

"I don't know for sure." Gus admitted. "He's my best friend, and as soon I left him he was hit. Maybe if I had been there, they wouldn't have managed to drag him off."

"I doubt it." Juliet said truthfully. "I don't know what exactly happened, but I'm willing to bet my last dollar Officer Jenny was in uniform when they grabbed him."

"How do you figure?" Gus asked.

"The mall is a crowded place, a person dies someone is bound to notice someone else getting nabbed on the side – but if the captor is wearing a police uniform, then it just looks like Shawn is getting arrested."

"I guess." Gus said. "But Shawn and I knew Officer Jenny wasn't an officer anymore, I could've called her out."

"Maybe." Juliet said. "You could have and probably would have but let me put this as delicately as possible. In a city where you and Shawn aren't really recognized for what you do, people are more inclined to trust the badge rather than they are a civilian. It's a harsh reality, and for what it's worth. I hate that Shawn got hurt, but I love that as soon as I called you, you came. You showed me I can always count on you and that really means a lot to me. I love you Gus."

Gus' resolve melted, Juliet loved him. She was giving him a child, and she loved him. "I love you so much." They leaned in, a soft and sweet kiss taking place – it lingered and for a second Gus thought he was never going to let go.

"Oh for the love of god."

Juliet and Gus turned their heads in sync to face Henry who was sitting across from them the whole time.

"Please." Henry said again. "We're in a hospital for crying out loud."

"Sorry." Juliet gave a blush, but she didn't stop smiling and neither did Gus. Henry groaned and stood.

"You guys are worse than Shawn and Carlton, it's disgusting."

"Where are you going?" Gus asked.

"Coffee." Henry said. He started to walk away, Gus turned as if to ask if he could get a coffee too. As Henry left he clamped Gus right in the shoulder.

"Absolutely not Guster." Henry said, and he walked off.

Juliet laughed a bit, and watched as Gus turned back to face, his thumb pointing behind his head.

"That man needs a date." Gus said.

"Or just sex." Juliet shrugged.

"No." Gus visibly paled – which was impressive. "Why would you say that? Why... why?" Great. Now it was all Gus could picture. "No...no..." Gus kept shaking his head. "Just...no...no..." Gus just kept shaking her head, and Juliet kept laughing, albeit silently.


	13. Going Going Gone

**A/N: ****Holy crud it'd been forever since I've updated! Reasons; I quit my old job out of frustration, finished making a cosplay of Alpha 5, went to Anime North in Toronto, and started a new job all within the same month. Between all that; I visited with siblings, started writing an original manuscript and got scarily into an anime called Tiger Bunny. – WATCH IT! It's amazing!**

**Well here it is -a long overdue chapter. Hopefully it was worth the wait, and always – please enjoy, and feel free to review! **

**(Note: This Chapter has been fixed and replaced! Special thanks to Antivertigo!)  
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**Going Going Gone!**

Shawn was lost in a dream state. He was falling in and out of sleep like it was a job, and every time he woke up there would be someone else there to greet him. When oh when did he get so many friends?

After he had woken up to Lassie, he had woken up to see his dad. Henry's face was unreadable, but nonetheless he gestured to his son's back.

"How are you feeling?"

"I don't know." Shawn admitted. "Pretty sure whatever pain killer they have me on is strong as hell, feels kind of nice."

"Well don't start square dancing quite yet." Henry said.

"Oh yeah, because square dancing is totally my first choice. I'm already lying down. I think I'll start with a slow worm."

"Ha." Henry responded. "Just get better."

"Noted." Shawn was going back under.

He woke up again later, and when he opened his eyes again, there was Jules with her reassuring smile. It was funny, Shawn had always seen Jules as his baby sister – and now she was with Gus. Gus was dating his baby sister. Gus knocked up his baby sister. Shawn made a mental note to beat Gus up.

"Good morning." Jules greeted. "Sleep well?"

"I don't know. I've been just kind of – floating."

"I can tell." Jules answered. "I've never seen you whiter."

"White enough to start my own boy band?" Shawn joked a bit, and Juliet gave a soft laugh.

"White enough to start two." She confirmed. "Lots of twelve year old love ballads and reaching out to the camera all soulful."

"I love it." Shawn replied. "It's decided then -boy bands all over the place."

"Agreed." Juliet gave a cheerful thumbs up. "I'm going to send Gus in okay? I've been trying to get him to come home with me all night."

"Gus was here all night?" Shawn suddenly felt so guilty. "That's not good, especially not for you. That's my niece you got in there."

"Shawn." Juliet said suddenly. "I just found out I was expecting. How do you know it's a girl? Is it a vision? Can you see my daughter?"

"Not exactly." Shawn managed a grin. "Take a look at Gus and tell me he doesn't have girly genes."

"You're horrible." Juliet teased, and shaking her head she left the room to grab Gus. When Gus came in, his shoulders were sunken, he looked downright miserable. Shawn knew that if the situation was reversed he'd be in no better shape.

"Gus." Shawn started. "Go home."

"Shawn." Gus responded. "I can't. I feel responsible man."

"Don't." Shawn said. "There was absolutely no way either of us could have possibly known. Randall called me minutes after you left; I was already out of the mall. You had more important things. Dude. You're going to be a dad."

"That is terrifying."

"I know. It was what? A week ago I tricked you into burning your tongue off your coffee – twice."

"Yeah. That kind of sucked, I'm not ready to be a dad."

"Yes you are." Shawn said. "I don't know anyone who is more ready, but I digress. If you're still nervous here's what we'll do! When Juliet pops, I'll be standing by front and center –right at the foot of the bed with bubble wrap! I'll catch the baby when it flies out like it's a football and we'll just wrap that little sucker right up!"

"You're not wrapping my kid up in bubble wrap Shawn." Gus' tone was suddenly serious, and protective. This earned him the Shawn stamp of approval.

"See? You're already threatening me. You're going to be fantastic AND I'm fine, so you can go home and sleep. Your baby mama needs a rest."

"Alright." Gus finally obliged and, giving Shawn a bro fist, he left with Jules. Shawn was relieved that Gus was finally letting up, so now all he had to worry about was getting out of this bed and finding Kayla. Because Shawn would be damned if she got away.

After awhile, thoughts of Kayla seemed to fade. No one seemed to be coming in to check on Shawn, and Shawn had nothing to really do. Shawn just ended up falling back to sleep. Though he doubted he slept very long. A few soft taps sounded off next to his ear, waking him up. He glanced at the metal rack attached to his bed, then up at the hand that had been clanging against it with the aid of a wide silver ring. The hand was connected to Chief Anderson.

"Pathetic." Chief Anderson said right away.

Shawn wasn't quite sure what to think. "What time is it?" It was the only question he could think to ask.

"Late." Anderson replied.

"You don't have a visitor's pass." Shawn noted.

"You honestly believe a police chief is going to be doubted?" Anderson challenged. "There's a _reason _only certain officer's get promoted boy."

"Ah." Shawn resounded. "So, Chief -to what do I owe this late night pleasure?"

"Nothing." Chief Anderson said curtly. "I just wanted to look down on the fake that got my daughter killed."

"Look. I didn't kill her, and I didn't ask for her to kidnap me. I'm really sorry for your loss sir, but I was only trying to do the job you hired me to do."

"Really?" Chief Anderson said. "You're apologizing? You're not going to defend yourself more? Accuse my daughter of being a dirty criminal? None of that?"

"No." Shawn said sternly. "Sir, I believe an eye for an eye. At the end of the game, the King and the Pawn get packed into the same box. Regardless of your daughter's actions prior to her death, she was still a human being."

"This is all a big game to you isn't it Spencer?" Chief Anderson spat. "You lay here, talking all noble as if you held the key to world peace in your dirty hands. But you know what you really are? Full of bull shit. Complete and utter bullshit. I know what you are. You're a fraud. A 'psychic' that solves crime. Please! You think you're the only one who can spot a detail from across the room? Not likely. Your daddy taught you well, but he must've not done well to teach you about honesty."

"My father has nothing to do with this." Shawn defended.

"So you admit it!" Chief Anderson said. "Not directly, so I can't nail you for it, but it's confirmed. You're no better than the sleezeballs you help put behind bars. It's disgusting really. Those officers out there? They studied. They worked. They made the choice to dedicate their lives to protect idiots like you! My daughter used to be one. She was eager, and bright, a beautiful child, and a damn good rookie! But something about you changed that in her. Before your name started popping up in the papers, she was as sweet as could be. Wouldn't hurt a damn fly unless the fly was holding up a bank." Chief Anderson looked like he was about to explode. Either with anger, or tears. Shawn was silently hoping for the latter. Little did Shawn know, Chief Anderson would do neither.

"Look sir-" Shawn tried.

"Save it. Your detective. Your fiancé, or whatever the hell you want to call him. He doesn't know does he?"

Shawn didn't respond.

"That's what I thought." Chief Anderson said. "I'm not going to say anything. To anyone. You might be a fraud, but I'm the Police Chief who hired you after Karen. So your actions do reflect on my police force now, and my police force has a reputation I do well to keep in check. Shawn. I am grieving. I've lost a daughter. You might not be directly responsible, but you are a key element, and I will never forgive you for that." The Chief's voice was cold. "Have you not once EVER thought about consequences? You're promised to marry a de-tect-ive. A man who prides himself on pride and law enforcement, yet you actively tarnish the image he works hard to keep. I've read his file. Lassiter's a damn good cop, and a hell of a shot. It's a bloody shame he's blind to the fact you're a liability to him."

"I would NEVER do anything to hurt him!" Shawn was getting worked up now. Why was he bringing Lassie into this? Shawn had heard enough. "Again, sir, I am sorry, but you need to leave. I'm calling a nurse."

"Oh I know you wouldn't. At least – not intentionally, but just think about it. All it takes is for one detail to be slightly off, one piece of information to be fabricated, and you could land him here, or in the grave. He's at a higher risk than anyone else with the SBPD because he so blindly believes in you. Anyone who believes in you is at risk. You're a ticking time bomb."

Shawn's stomach dropped. Chief Anderson's words stung to the point Shawn felt a tear in his eye, a tear that didn't go unnoticed by the Chief.

"Well look at that. A glimpse of something human. Recover Shawn. Then when you're on your feet again. Do the right thing."

Chief Anderson didn't say anything else, he just left. Shawn could barely breathe. He turned his head into his pillow, and wept.

Lassiter was done like a dinner. The paperwork had all been notarized, stamped, and filed. God damn his back was killing him, and his hand was cramped. He stood, stretched and groaned. He was mostly tired, he really should be going home to rest. However his mind kept egging him to go check on Shawn. It had been quite a few hours since Lassiter had reluctantly returned to the station, and Lassiter was learning now that it didn't matter what condition Shawn was in, if Lassiter was apart from him for more than a few hours at a time – he felt, off. He didn't like thinking about it too much. Thinking about it left room for mushy gushy – Lassiter didn't do mushy gushy. No. Just no.

In the early hours of the morning, the hospital wasn't exactly hopping. Only a few people were scattered throughout the waiting area, and the nurse's station only had a couple attending. The nurses only waved Lassiter through when he showed his badge, and didn't bother asking him what his business was. Not that it really mattered. He came to Shawn's room and went in with a soft knock.

"Shawn?" Lassiter poked his head into the room. "Are you awake?"

Oh. Shit. Shawn hadn't stopped crying since Chief Anderson left, and now Lassie was here – dammit! Shawn barely lifted his head, he just gave a nod.

All Lassiter saw was tear stains and red eyes, and he was pissed. He closed the door behind him and went right over to his lover's side with nothing but concern. "Shawn?"

Shawn didn't answer, he couldn't. His silence drove Lassiter nuts.

"Shawn – what happened? Why are you crying?"

Shawn took a long, steadying breath. Inside his head, he was cursing profusely and thrashing violently. He glanced up at Lassiter. Shawn loved him. More than life itself, Shawn admired and longed for everything Lassiter was. Especially now, with Lassiter's eyes filled with so much worry for Shawn, and so much anger for anyone who dared hurt him...Shawn inwardly cringed. He wasn't worthy. He couldn't handle it anymore. He loved Lassiter WAY too much.

"I'm not psychic." The words barely came out in a whisper.

Silence. The sharp silence that followed nearly killed them both. Its volume was deafening, and its sting was poison. Screaming. Shawn thought for sure he must be screaming – at least the inside of his head was screaming. He looked over Lassiter through tear filled eyes, waiting for the inevitable yelling, and the slew of angry accusations that would soon follow. He was greatly disappointed. After what felt like an eternity, Lassiter was on his feet, and out the door. Shawn would've preferred the yelling.

"Just like that?" Gus' voice sounded so disappointed to the point it bordered on anger. Two weeks after Shawn had spilled the beans, and he was on his feet again. Leaning on his back was still an issue, but standing and walking was spot on, and he was able to sit hunched over at a table. Finally after two weeks, he had enough inner strength to tell Gus why Lassiter stopped coming around, and why Shawn no longer cared to do much eating or sleeping, or breathing. Thankfully, two out of the three were optional.

"Just like that." Shawn confirmed. He sighed and looked at the smoothie Gus had brought him; he didn't exactly want that either. Total weight loss count? About 5 pounds.

"Dead." Was all Gus said then. "I'm going to kill him." Gus made up his mind. "He had no right!"

"Relax." Shawn tried. "You're about to be a father, you don't need to start a body count."

"Shawn he left you!" Gus said excitedly. "That's not cool!"

"Thanks for rubbing it in." Shawn said lowly, "and hello – I lied, like – big time. If anything I should be happy he didn't kill me."

"Not good enough." Gus huffed. "I thought he was a bigger man than that."

"He's hurt." Shawn defended. "You're my best friend, what if I were to suddenly tell you I liked hanging out with George better? After years of telling you I don't even like George?"

"...Who the hell is George?" Gus raised an eyebrow.

"No one is George." Shawn said. "Hypothetical."

"Well hypothetically, you had the balls to tell me about your friendship with George, and are we any less friends? No. Because it's better late than never."

Shawn gave a nod, and absent mindedly began to stir his smoothie. Gus didn't speak again until he had an inquiry.

"Shawn?"

"Yeah Gus?"

"Is there a George?"

For the first time in two weeks, Shawn gave a ghost of a smile. "No Gus. There's no George."

Gus visibly relaxed, that answer was satisfactory.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" Gus asked after a few more minutes.

"Eh..." Shawn wasn't really up for it, he wasn't much for anything anymore.

"Dude. You've been at your dad's for two days now." Gus said. "I like your dad, but you're starting to smell like his house. Not a horrible thing, but a troublesome thing. Just a stroll along the water."

It seemed like too much work. Shawn's back protested at the thought. "Tomorrow."

"I'm holding you to it." Gus said sternly. "You need to exercise."

"Yes Mom." Shawn said a bit mockingly.

"Don't use that tone on me!" Gus challenged. "Or I WILL call your mother."

"Oh Gus." Shawn shook his head. Sometimes his best buddy could be so endearing.

Before anything else could be said, the door opened and Henry came barging in with three big grocery bags. He appeared to be struggling a bit, and Gus rose from his seat to help, but the elder Spencer barked at him to leave.

"Gus. Go home."

"Yes sir." Gus knew that tone, it was Henry's 'don't fuck with me' tone, and even though Gus was full grown, it still scared the ever living crap out of him. Gus was out the door.

"Shawn." Henry said curtly. "Come grab a bag."

Shawn's back ached, he really didn't want to...

"If you do nothing but sit your back will hurt forever." Henry said. "Now come grab a bag. Now."

How the hell did Henry do that? Shawn sighed, and stood, he held out his hands, and was given a bag. He clutched it tightly and held it to his chest. His body protested.

"Count to ten then put it on the counter."

Shawn obliged, the count to ten was slow, and a bit painful, but he wasn't about to let on. He knew his dad was only trying to help him exercise in some small way. Shawn put the bag down, and peered inside. Nothing but pineapples. A small smile touched the corner of Shawn's face.

"You approve of the fruit choice?" Henry asked.

"Always."

"Good." Henry handed Shawn a bag of apples. "Put these in the bottom drawer of the fridge."

Shawn groaned, but did was he was told. The whole bending? Not cool.

At that point Henry started handing Shawn items one at a time, Shawn was bending low, and then reaching high -it was exhausting. All the while, Henry stood with his arms crossed, a stoic expression on his face. Shawn was about halfway finished putting everything away when Henry spoke.

"So, you ever going to tell me why you're acting bitchier then a 13 year old girl on her first period?"

Henry's words made Shawn stop in his tracks. "Dad...ew."

"Well?" Henry pressed. "Out with it. You're supposed to be recovering, instead you're losing weight, and doing dick all."

"You're so vulgar."

"And you're an idiot." Henry responded. "Talk to me."

It was Henry's way of telling his son that he was worried, however, the way he was going about it was reminding Shawn way too much of Lasssie. It hurt. Shawn shook his head, and put a can of soup on the top shelf. "I can't do this right now Dad." He turned to leave the kitchen.

"You got dumped." Henry didn't make it a question.

Shawn stopped in the door way. "Yeah Dad. I got dumped. For lack of a better word."

"What did he say?" Henry asked.

"Nothing." Shawn said, and he turned back around. "Which is the worse part, he just left."

"Oh?" Henry wasn't expecting that. "What did you say before?"

"I - ...I told him the truth. About me and the psychic thing." Shawn said meekly.

"So. You – told him the truth, and he just –bailed?"

"Yeah." Shawn said tiredly. "I deserved it though."

"The hell you did!" Henry snapped.

That caught Shawn's attention, and he looked up.

"Shawn. You were in a vulnerable state. In your vulnerable state, you shared a deep secret with someone you LOVED, he should've stayed. He should've worked it out. He acted selfishly, and irresponsibly. Don't ever think you deserved it, you didn't. I'm kicking him in the balls at work tomorrow." Henry didn't sound like he was lying.

"Dad, I was lying to him for years." Shawn said. "He had a right to be upset."

"Of course he did." Henry agreed. "But it's been two weeks, has he even called?"

"No." Shawn said sheepishly.

"But you've been calling."

"Yeah."

"I know." Henry said. "His phone never shuts up now. At work, he just glances at it and puts it in his desk."

Shawn's shoulders sunk a bit.

"Screw him. If he's going to act petty, you're better off without him."

"I guess. Just, do me a favor? Don't make working with him awkward. You like your job."

"I don't intend to say anything. Even if he is a twit, work is work; we still share a space on a day to day basis."

Unfortunately, Henry's logic didn't extend to Gus. The very next day, Gus was at the station. Originally he was just there to drop off Juliet's lunch, but his first glance of Lassiter meant that all weapons were raised. They crossed paths, and the air got really tense. Lassiter stopped, and regarded Gus with a quiet half nod, but Gus wasn't having it.

"You can be a bit of a dick sometimes." Gus said outright.

Lassiter knew exactly what he was talking about. "Guster-"

"Don't Guster me!" Gus cut him off. "Do you have ANY idea what you're putting him through?"

"He – LIED." Lassiter couldn't make that any clearer. "There are literally tons of case files now, that are compromised. Officers could lose their JOBS over this, your fiancé included."

Gus sneered. "But not you right? Because you're the good guy? You squeal so you become the golden boy who doesn't get the hot seat. You get to sit gingerly next to the Chief while she doles out the punishment to all those little cops who should've known better then to trust the guy who always seemed to bring in the bad guys."

"I never said that." Lassiter hissed quietly. "Gus you're being unreasonable, if this got out Shawn could go to jail. For a long time. I'm just trying to do the right thing for everybody."

"By pretending he doesn't exist? Oh because that's always the right answer!" Gus wasn't letting this go.

"Look." Lassiter said quietly. "I wasn't going to say anything alright? No one is going to jail, no one is getting fired. I just can't be around him. He was lying to our faces for years, and you helped. Quite frankly, that makes you an accessory."

"Whatever. He always got the right guy, psychic or not. You not telling anybody just tells me you aren't pissed about him lying, it tells me you're pissed that he's better then you. Your precious pride is hurt and you're handling it bad."

Lassiter didn't say a word. "I'm sure with time, it'll be fine. You and Spencer can go back to playing cops and robbers, but I won't be a part of it anymore."

"Shawn never thought it was a game." Gus got defensive. "You've seen him put on a show, but have you actually seen him – WORK? If you think this is just a game to him, you're grossly misinformed, and owe him an apology."

"Maybe." Lassiter was getting agitated. "If he apologizes for lying."

"Gus!"

Juliet's voice caught their attention, both men turned to face the blonde that was walking into the station, she had a bit of a hurried pace in her step and her face looked frantic. This caused Gus to jump to attention.

"Baby what's wrong? Are you alright?" Gus went over to greet Juliet who was breathing heavily, she looked like she just ran a marathon.

"What you mean what's wrong!" Juliet snapped. "Don't act like you don't know!"

"Baby...breathe." Gus instructed. He was completely ignoring Lassiter now. "Why are you freaking?"

"I just drove past the Psych building, and there's a for sale sign out front! Why is there a for sale building Gus? Are you guys moving? You didn't mention a move to me!" Juliet sounded upset that she didn't know. It took a second for this to register in Gus' mind.

"Wait...moving...babe – no. Psych isn't moving, we never once considered moving." Of course then, the light bulb went off over Gus' head. Juliet came to the exact same conclusion.

"You're not moving." She said calmly. "Shawn's – shutting down."

"I ..guess so." Gus said. He gave Juliet a kiss. "I have to go talk to him. I'm sorry, your lunch is on the table. I love you." Gus took off – just what the hell was Shawn thinking?

Meanwhile, Shawn was still at his dads. Henry was pretty much forcing Shawn to do daily exercises for his back, it was too soon to tell yet if they would work. However Shawn was obliging, because doing exercises meant that Henry was making Shawn eat – though Shawn knew he'd have to start eventually. Probably. Just not today. Shawn was in the process of doing some bends, when his father's doorbell rang. Shawn lifted his head; Henry wasn't home at the moment.

Not knowing who it could be, but knowing it couldn't be Gus because never knocked anymore, Shawn moved to the peep hole. A glance and he recognized the face, and quickly opened the door.

"Randall." Shawn greeted. "Everything okay?" Shawn noted Randall was in his work suit. Which meant he was here on business.

"Actually Shawn, no. Is your father home? I need to speak with you and him." Randall's voice sounded a bit solemn.

"Detective Peterson?" Henry's voice sounded off, and Randall and Shawn turned to face him. He was stepping out of his truck.

"Oh good." Randall said. "We can get this done sooner."

"Get what done?" Shawn asked.

"If you let me in, we can talk inside. The three of us." Randall responded.

Shawn and Henry exchanged a look.

"Come on in." Henry said. The three men stepped into the house, and sat down.

"So, you got nothing?" Shawn asked.

"I'm afraid not. Kayla has left no visible trail. We searched every lead, questioned everyone she's had contact with. She's really deep into hiding."

"Let me look." Shawn tried.

"Conflict of interest." Randall said. "I'm sorry, Chief Anderson won't allow it. I'm afraid at this point we have to follow procedure, for your safety."

"Procedure being?" Shawn had no idea where this was going.

"Procedure being witness protection Shawn." Henry said.

"Oh." Shawn said. "Wait – what?"

"Your name is going to be legally changed." Randall said. "You're going to be relocated to a safe location, until Kayla is apprehended."

"I'm an adult! Don't you think it should be up to me whether I go or not?"

"Unfortunately not in a case like this." Randall explained. "All I can promise you is that you will be returned to your current life once Kayla is caught."

"If." Shawn corrected. "I might never see Gus again, or my dad, or – anyone."

"You'll see me." Randall said. "As your protective officer I'm able to transfer letters between you and your family members, but they're not allowed to know where you are."

Shawn had thought selling Psych would've been enough, that cutting himself from SBPD would be enough, but it seemed the universe had other ideas. Shawn sighed; he was too weak to argue.

The door opened, and Gus came in swinging all guns.

"Shawn! How come you didn't tell me you were selling Psych!" Gus stopped in his tracks when he saw the other three seated closely. The looks on everyone's faces were rather grim.

"Shawn?" Gus didn't like where this was going. Shawn cleared his throat.

"Gus...buddy. Good. Can you do me a favor? Can you oversee Psych's sale?" Shawn's voice was tired, and sad.

"Shawn...?" Gus tilted his head. "Mr. Spencer – Detective Peterson – what's going on?"

"Witness protection." Henry didn't sugar coat it. "CHPD can't find Kayla."

"Gus." Shawn said. "I have to leave for awhile. I don't know when or if I'm coming back."

"You're leaving." That was all Gus understood.

"I have to. I'm sorry buddy."


	14. Impulse

**A/N: ****Two updates in a week, I must be on a roll. Hopefully it doesn't go away soon because I'm really enjoying it. I hope you enjoy it too! **

**~Matilda**

**Impulse**

"I don't believe it." Gus was at a loss of words, Shawn was leaving? Just like that. Shawn wasn't even trying to fight it. He was just letting CHPD come and take him away. This upset Gus greatly but what could he really do? "Shawn." Gus tried. "We can fix this."

"No we can't." Shawn sounded annoyed. "I screwed up Gus. I'm done with all this. I'm going willingly. Psych is done, and I'm getting a new start. This could be good for me."

"But...my baby..." Every image Gus had ever conjured of Shawn playing the role of uncle was shattering. It sucked, big time. "I need you man."

"No. You need Jules, and she needs you. Gus it'll be okay. I'll write letters. This is for the best."

Gus was really hurt now. He looked to Henry who didn't look pleased either. Randall appeared to be apologetic, but the detective wasn't saying anything.

"Shawn, maybe it's a better idea not to drag this out. Go pack a bag; we can leave within the hour."

"Okay." Shawn gave Gus another look before pushing past him to go up the stairs to his room. Gus' emotions quickly turned to anger. He turned to yell up at Shawn's retreating form.

"You're not even trying!"

Shawn stopped, but didn't turn around. He allowed a beat of silence to pass before continuing on his way. Gus being unable to handle the disappointment just went to the door and left.

Shawn went into his room, and hearing the door close from downstairs knew that Gus was gone – good. As far as Shawn was concerned he had done well to screw up Gus' life too, and his friend deserved so much better than that.

It took Shawn less than an hour to grab everything he needed. Most of his belongings were already packed up in an overnight bag from the hospital. Shawn had been too lazy to unpack, not that it mattered now anyway. He slung the bag over his shoulder and slipped on his shoes heading back downstairs to meet Randall who was waiting patiently by the door.

"That was fast."

"Magic powers." Shawn gave a weak joke. "Hold on another minute." Shawn left Randall and went into the kitchen looking for Henry. "Dad?"

"What?" Henry sounded aggravated, he was closing the fridge door as he turned to face his son. He was clutching onto a cold beer. "What do you want?"

"I just – wanted to say, bye."

"No need." Henry cracked his beer open and took a swig. "You'll be back." Henry sounded so sure.

Shawn didn't argue, he went back to meet Randall who hadn't moved. "Let's go."

Randall nodded, and within the next few minutes they were on the road. They drove in silence, Randall's expression remaining stoic.

Shawn settled into his seat as best he could without irritating his back. He closed his eyes, he had no idea where they were going, but he didn't necessarily care.

"Tomorrow we have to go to your bank." Randall's voice broke the silence. This caused Shawn to raise a brow.

"Why?"

"To sort out all your assets, get your money. That sort of thing. You need to live off something."

"Ah." There was a pause. "Where exactly are we going now?"

"For the next couple of days, you'll be with me holed up in a hotel. Then on Monday, a secure location will be all ready for you to move in."

"Here?"

"No. I'm not sure yet. My bets are either on Coral Haven or Landsdowne."

Landsowne was a tiny subdivision a few miles past Coral Haven. They had a whopping population of 10 people. Shawn cringed a bit, it was a hick town sort of place.

"Landsowne? Really?"

"I'm just doing my job Shawn." Randall didn't leave it open for debate.

So much for a new start. At this point Shawn was seriously considering just making a run for it. Not really wanting to dwell on it, he switched subjects.

"What's been going on with Marcus lately?"

Randall's hands gripped the wheel tighter. "We're working on it."

"That really doesn't sound promising."

"We have some trust issues we're working out." Randall said. "You know it's kind of funny. When the case first started, Marcus and I argued all the time because I thought he still carried a torch for you. Then you and I worked closer together and I started to like you. Then the argument switched around, then Marcus got that picture and it's been hell ever since."

"Lassie got the same picture." Shawn mentioned. Though mentioning Lassie caused his chest to conflict a bit, and he looked out the window to avoid showing Randall any form of pain.

"You're still together though."

Shawn's stomach turned even harder. "Not exactly – but not because of the picture though. There were other things."

"I'm so sorry Shawn."

"Eh." Shawn was getting uncomfortable, but he wasn't about to let Randall of all people onto that fact. "It was overdue."

"Can I ask what happened?"

"A million times no."

"I see."

They fell back into silence, and eventually a hotel came into view. It was a small one; nowhere near the size of the hotel Shawn and Lassiter had stayed in when the Kensington case started. If Shawn had known that this case would've led to the eventual escape of Kayla and the end of Shawn's relationship, he would've ran. So fast. Shawn squeezed his eyes shut, trying to will the clock to turn back about a month.

"You okay?" Randall's voice called for his attention. "I have an advil if you've got a headache."

Shawn sighed, and shaking his head no, simply got out of the car and followed Randall inside. It was the quickest check in Shawn had ever experienced, as they approached the front desk, all Randall did was flash his badge and he was given two room keys.

The room was small, and sported two single beds. Shawn wasn't entirely surprised. He plopped his bag down and got into bed closing his eyes.

"This is home for the next few days." Randall said. "CHPD is paying for everything, so...you know...milk it."

"Maybe later." Shawn just wanted to fall asleep.

"So..." Randall said. "Anything you want to talk about? Concerns? Questions?"

"Nope." Shawn said. "Just tell me my new address."

"I don't know it yet."

"That's fine. Later."

"Something tells me you're taking this breakup really hard. Like – worse than a 13 year old who just got dumped for the first time."

"You and my dad should really hang out sometime."

Randall gave a small laugh. "Perhaps another time."

"Randall?"

"Yeah?"

"Go get a book or something, I'm not feeling very talkative, you're going to get bored."

Silence fell over the room, and Shawn turned so that he was facing the wall. He didn't care what Randall did or said. He just wanted to get this show on the road. So until Randall said it was time to go, Shawn was going to stay in bed.

"Gus it's just a night shift."

Back at the station, Juliet was trying to get Gus to let up. He was being pretty insistent that she come home with him.

"It's more than that." Gus argued. "Its overtime. Overtime is stressful. You don't need stress. You need to come home, put your feet up, read a magazine and get some sleep."

"I already read the magazines at your place, Gus its fine. This is how I worked right up until I got pregnant, and this is how I'm going to work during my pregnancy. The Chief has already pulled me from the field; the desk is all I have now."

"Okay." Gus gave in. "Okay, okay. I'll be at home when you get there."

"Baby, I didn't say you had to wait up for me. Go to bed, or better yet call Shawn. It's cheap night at the theatre tonight. Lord knows he probably needs a night out."

"I can't call Shawn." Gus sounded hesitant.

"That's crazy." Juliet answered. "Why not? He probably needs it more than you do. Selling Psych was a big move. Especially after a break up, he needs his best friend."

"Uh..." Gus seethed. "Listen...Juliet. It's not that I don't want to call him. I can't. Literally. I can't."

"Did you forget his number, because I have it, it's no big deal. Here pull out your phone, it'll take two seconds."

"It won't work."

"Gus you're acting crazy. Call him." She picked up the phone from her desk and offered it to him.

"Baby..." Gus' voice softened. "You're a cop right?"

"I hope so – where is this going?"

"When you're on a case, where one particular person's life is at risk, what's protocol?"

"Search the area, talk to any previous contacts and leads, and if nothing pops up after a couple weeks, the victim is placed into wit..." Juliet's eyes widened. "CHPD hasn't found Kayla?"

"Not even close." Gus confirmed. "Detective Peterson came to Henry's house earlier and picked Shawn up. Shawn's gone."

"Gone?" Gus and Juliet turned their heads to the door, just in time to see Lassiter who had just walked in only in time to hear the words 'Shawn's gone' two words that really didn't sit well with him. "What do you mean gone?" Lassiter's voice sounded rather threatening.

"Carlton." Juliet tried. "It's-"

"It's exactly what you think." Gus cut her off. "I didn't think you'd care since you up and left though."

"Tell me what happened." Lassiter didn't make it a question.

"The details are shaky." Gus said. "He didn't even tell his dad. He just...well...yeah."

"What? Just what?" Lassiter was getting all sorts of wrong images in his head. "How come the police weren't called? !"

Juliet looked over to Gus who had a bit of a twinkle in his eye, and she had to keep from grinning.

"They were. You weren't told because word hasn't gotten out yet that you two were done. Conflict of interest and all."

Lassiter didn't say another word; he walked right past them and out of the station. He was getting to the bottom of this. He had to keep from not panicking. Shawn and him were done. Finished. No longer. That meddlesome not psychic meant nothing to him. NOTHING.

Detective Lassiter needed to stop lying to himself. He hoped in his car and didn't even bother doing the safety check before taking off. His breath was hitched, his heart was missing beats. Gus' words were spinning round and round in his head.

"_Shawn's gone. Shawn's gone."_

Lassiter parked on a 45 degree angle on Henry's lawn, and didn't even bother knocking. He pushed through the front door calling out. "Spencer! Spencer!"

He didn't even notice that there were no other officers around, and he didn't seem to care that Guster of all people was taking the news of Shawn being good so ...well. None of this was occurring to him. He just needed to see Shawn. "Spencer!"

Lassiter was getting frantic. He spun around taking in the empty house. Not a single sound. "Dammit Spencer..." Lassiter turned back around to face the kitchen. Only to have stars explode behind his eyes. He was pretty sure he felt pain too, and he stumbled back holding his face.

Henry stood in place, his fist still out. The punch wasn't hard enough to knock the detective out, just enough to give him a bit of a shiner. "The hell are you doing in my house at this hour Carlton?"

Talking? Henry was talking. Carlton could barely hear over all the ringing in his ears. Finally though, Lassiter managed to process that he had just been hit, and words started to form on his tongue. "Ow! Ow! What...what the hell? !...You hit me!"

"You barged into my house at 11 o clock at night!"

"Your door wasn't even locked!"

"I keep a gun under my pillow."

"That's insane!"

"Really? And a colt strapped to the bottom of your coffee table is totally normal?"

"Shawn told you about my colt?"

"It doesn't matter now does it?" Henry rolled his eyes and moved into the kitchen motioning Lassiter to follow him. Lassiter obliged. When Henry pointed to a chair, Lassiter sat in silence, and didn't speak again until Henry was handing him a bag of frozen peas. Lassiter pressed it to his eye.

"I heard about Shawn."

"Excuse me?"

"Shawn. I overheard Guster talking to O'Hara about Shawn, he's gone."

"...You came into my house screaming because Shawn got put into witness protection?"

"Witness protection?"

"Yes. Witness protection. What did you think Gus meant?"

"...I honestly don't know."

"How's your shiner?" Henry sat across from him.

"Bruised." Lassiter responded. "So where's Shawn now?"

"I honestly don't know." Henry said. "But I can probably figure it out."

"...You'd help me find him?" Lassiter perked up, his voice dripping with disbelief.

"Look. I knew my kid wasn't psychic from day one. I didn't say anything because I felt like I owed him, and when you're a father. Upholding the law is just fine and dandy but eventually you have to be able to ask yourself just how far you're willing to take it in your household. Shawn wanted to try something new, he wanted to help people. He never hurt anybody, or caused too much trouble. He was just trying to do the right thing. Just like you are now."

"I feel like such a dick."

"You are a dick."

"Thanks for that."

"Hold on let me finish, you are indeed a dick. Yet for some god awful reason, Shawn loves you, and you not being there for him, is killing him. So you and I are going to figure out where he is, and you're going to get him back."

Lassiter took a breath, and removed the frozen peas from his face to look at Henry fully. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." Henry crossed his arms. "Oh, and for the record? The black eye I gave you? That was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to years of pent up dad rage. Mess up like this again? I'll have your body turned into a furniture set before anyone important realizes you're gone."

"Noted." Lassiter didn't say anything else; he was actually terrified that Henry was telling the truth. Right now he was more concerned about Shawn. "So when do we start?"

"In the morning." Henry said. "It's late. Unlike you I'm not suffering lover's strife. I'm going to sleep. Either go home and come back in the morning, or sleep in Shawn's room. It's the room that still smells like dirty socks after 15 years."

"Great." Oddly enough Lassiter found that comforting.

Neither Lassiter or Shawn slept very well though. Shawn in the hospital had had his fare share of sleep, and even though he refused to move from his bed, he kept his eyes trained on the wall wide awake. Throughout the night he listened to Randall do random things; push ups, flicking through a magazine, channel surfing. Shawn was even sure Randall had used his phone to go onto facebook a couple of times. Not that Shawn really cared. Eventually though a knock came to the door, and Shawn listened as Randall greeted a member of hotel staff, Shawn heard squeaking wheels, and knew it must've been time to eat.

"Shawn." Randall clapped his hands loudly. "Enough of this sulking bullshit come over here have a waffle."

"I'm not hungry."

"And I'm a ballerina. Come on. You've already let this breakup take away 10 pounds. Everyone struggling with obesity is officially jealous you. However it is now time to rejoin the human race. So up. Now."

"You're awfully offensive this morning."

"And you're pathetic. But if you eat a waffle I'll think you're less pathetic."

"So caring." Shawn's voice dripped with sarcasm, he didn't really want to spend the day arguing with Randall, so he got up and went over to the trolley of food. "One waffle." Shawn said. "Only one."

Shawn reluctantly took a bite; the waffle was still warm and was smothered in real maple syrup. That first bite seemed to remind Shawn that food was amazing. He plopped himself down and ate the rest of the waffle in ravenous silence before progressing to pile four more onto his plate.

"Holy crap." Randall said. "Save some for me."

"Never." Shawn was halfway done his second waffle. "The next time I break up with someone? I'm gorging instead of starving. I feel better, AND the shame is smothered with fat. It's a brilliant system."

"Right." Randall scratched his head confused. "Your attitude turned around pretty fast I must admit."

"Gotta snap out of it sooner or later." Shawn said.

"You're not over it though."

"God no – are those strawberries?"

"Yeah."

Shawn started to load up on strawberries.

"You're eating really fast."

"I'm hungry." Shawn protested.

"Still too fast."

"Ah -whaddya you know copper?"

About ten minutes later Shawn was benter over the toilette crying bloody murder. Randall stood under the threshold with his arms crossed and his brow raised. "Permission to say I told you so?"

"Shove it Randy cop!"

Randall gave a brief laugh and shook his head going back into the main part of the room. He went into his suitcase and started grabbing clothes. "Shawn when you're done yacking in there take a shower. We still have to go to the bank before your big move."

Shawn didn't answer Randall, the silence was expected, but Randall being thorough decided to go check on him. Randall popped his head back into the bathroom, only to see Shawn half way out the window at an awkward angle.

"Shawn! Seriously?"

"...Yes."

"Where are you even going?"

"I haven't figured that out that part yet."

"So you being sick was just a gimmick?"

"Oh no that part was real, it was the enthusiasm I had to fake. Now if you'll excuse me I'd like to carry out this epic escape."

"It doesn't look very epic to me."

"Its epic!" Shawn argued, then tried to move and realized he was stuck. "Maybe not as epic as I originally planned – little help?"

Randall sighed and moving to the window, wrapped his arms around Shawn to the best of his ability, he pulled but Shawn didn't budge.

"Holy crap Spencer you're really stuck!"

"I blame the fourth waffle, now pull!"

"I am!"

"Harder!"

"For god's sake Spencer stop pressuring me!" Randall was pulling and pulling, but Shawn wasn't giving. "What made you think you could fit through this stupid thing?"

"Uh...I didn't."

"Oh for the love of..." Randall pulled again. "I hate you Spencer."

"Well I'm not too fond of me either right now, so just keep pulling."

Randall pulled for a good few moments with nothing happening. Shawn was pushing from the other side to try to help him, and for a while it looked like nothing was happening until there was a crack. Shawn's entire body came free of the window, but it happened in a way that he practically came flying out of the frame. He landed on Randall with an 'unf' sound and the two rolled onto the floor. Randall was not impressed.

"Get off me!" He gave Shawn a good shove, Shawn who at that point had been steadying himself on his knees, went stumbling back, his face coming into direct contact with a doorknob.

"Ow!" Shawn seethed getting to his feet slowly, his hand clamped to his face. "Ow!"

"Oh suck it up!" Randall was on his feet. "What kind of an idiot gets stuck in a window? !"

"It was an impulse!"

"You have impulses to get stuck in windows? !"

"Frequently!"

"What? ! That's insane Spencer!"

"You're insane!"

Before the yelling escalated, Randall stopped and took a deep breath. "Show me your face."

Shawn moved his hand; his eye was already starting to bruise. "Give it to me straight."

"I officially look like an abusive asshole." Randall answered.

"Its funny because in this case I actually did fall into a doorknob."

"Are you going to try and run again?"

"Uh..." Shawn answered. "No...?"

"Can I trust you?"

"Absolutely." Shawn promised. _Not._

Shawn grabbed what he needed from his bag and went into the bathroom again to shower. Twenty minutes later, he was with Randall in the parking lot again.

"So when we get to the bank, you're going to need two pieces of I.D to withdraw everything." Randall explained. "If you don't have it, you can temporarily sign over your account to me and we can get everything that way."

"Okie dokie." Shawn gave a false salute, and they came up to Randall's car. "Hey look over there!"

Randall turned. "Where?"

"I can't believe that worked – god you're easy!" Shawn hopped on one foot and turned on his heel taking off in a run. This caught Randall completely off guard.

"Shawn!" Randall called out. "Spencer you idiot get back here!" As far as Randall was concerned he still had a job to do and whether Shawn liked it or not, he was going to finish his job. Randall pocketed his keys and started after him.


	15. Gun Play

**A/N: **Here it is guys, the LAST chapter! This fic is finished! Done like a dinner! Yesterday's news! Today's fish n chips! I don't know, something clicked in me today, and the last pages just came flying out of me. Whether or not it was a good or bad thing – is completely up to you. So please! Please! Review! Any and all input is welcome!

Enjoy the last chapter! (It's almost 18 pages in word! That's a personal record for me!)

~Matilda

**Gunplay**

Seven blocks. Shawn made it three blocks before he realized two things; number one being even though he wanted to run off on his own- his bike was still in the shop so he couldn't. Number two? Shawn's back still had healing stitches in it. Shawn halted when he realized he was in agonizing pain.

"Arrgh!" Shawn groaned and doubled over catching his breath.

"Spencer!" Randall was hot on his trail, and when Shawn stopped dead in his tracks Randall didn't think twice about grabbing his arm and turning around. "What the hell? !"

Shawn took a second to catch his breath, and to get his pain under control. "I can't do it, I can't change my name, start new, I JUST can't do it."

"Well what else are we supposed to do?" Randall asked. "Seriously."

"Work with me, let me try to find Kayla."

"Shawn, three things wrong with that. Number 1 – you're already injured, number 2 – Chief Anderson already make it clear that you were OFF the case, and number 3 – Whenever you and Kayla are in the same general area she has a nasty habit of trying to _kill_ you."

"Not entirely true." Shawn answered. "When she and Officer Jenny had me in Davis' old house, I'm pretty sure she bailed. To do what I'm not sure, but I have a gut feeling she didn't mean to be gone for long."

"I did find the car relatively close to the hospital..." Randall mused. "She's keeping tabs on you."

"Only because she wants me dead, but she can't make a move if I'm constantly around other people."

"Please don't tell me you want to be used as bait."

"It's quite possible."

"Shawn. No. My job is to bring you to safety -not throw you under the bus."

"That's the best part." Shawn's eyes twinkled a bit. "You won't be throwing anything. Randall I RAN from you. You can always just tell your Chief that you couldn't find me. There won't be any grounds for a search party because Kayla hasn't been spotted either, so chances are he'll drop the whole case."

"You clearly don't know Chief Anderson very well."

"I know him better than you think." Shawn remembered the Chief coming to his hospital room, and he had to keep from shivering. Listening to Chief Anderson was what lost him everything. Shawn admittedly hated the other man. "Look forget it, I'm leaving now, and I'm finding Kayla with or without your help."

Randall took a breath, and shuffled his feet. "I wouldn't be getting paid for this."

"Neither am I Randall."

"You're hurt."

"Yesterday's news, I'm pretty sure if I can run 7 blocks away from a detective, I can do some sneaking around."

"No Shawn." Randall's voice was suddenly serious. "You're bleeding!"

"What?"

At that point Randall reached over and took Shawn's arm making him turn around. A few of his stitches had ripped right open and bits of blood were dripping down to the ground. The back of Shawn's shirt was completely ruined. "We have to get you patched up, god you're dumb sometimes!"

"Oh man." Shawn blushed, he honestly hadn't felt anything. He was too busy trying to convince Randall to either hop on his team, or back off. Lord knows he lost any chance of asking Lassie for help.

"Okay. We need to get you back to the hospital to get that patched up."

"What about Kayla?"

"Kayla will still be on the loose when you have new stitches, now come on."

Shawn huffed, but of course he had to agree. Randall took the lead, taking Shawn to a nearby bench and sitting him down.

"I don't want to risk walking you back to my car, so you're sitting here, and I'm calling an ambulance."

Shawn sat, and cringed, oh now that he was aware of his stitches being open, it was agonizing. Randall was on his phone, and started pacing around. He walked a good few feet away leaving Shawn with his thoughts. He can't remember the last time he felt this miserable. He just wanted to catch Kayla so that he could go. But was that even true? When he bolted from the parking lot, he wasn't even thinking about Kayla, so what did it matter? What did anything matter? At that point Shawn was shaking; he was having a hard time holding everything in.

"Shawn!"

Lassiter had been on his way back to Henry's house. He hadn't managed to sleep in Shawn's old room, it was too – Shawn, and so Lassiter had left around 3AM. He was on his way back now, and wasn't really expecting to see Shawn along the way -sitting on a bench no less. Shawn's head had been bent down, and Lassiter nearly drove right by him. However something nagged him to look, and soon he was parking his car on the opposite side of the road and was marching over to the bench calling Shawn's name.

Shawn froze. No way in hell was that Lassie, absolutely not, and if it was, it was probably Lassie coming to end him. Though that part got forgotten when he looked up and saw that Lassie had a black eye. "Your eye." Shawn gestured to Lassiter's face when Lassiter was just a couple of feet away.

"Your father." Lassiter answered, and Shawn felt all warm inside. Yay dad! That feeling lasted about a second when Lassiter spoke up again gesturing to Shawn's eye. "And what do you mean my eye? ! Your eye!"

"Oh." Shawn bit his lip. "That's actually a long story, you see-"

Lassiter had already moved on. "You're bleeding!"

"Uh...yeah." Shawn confirmed. "Look, Lassie. Its fine okay? Detective Peterson-"

"Detective Peterson did this? !"

"Did what? Detective Lassiter, when you did you get here?" Randall had come back from calling the ambulance.

Lassiter was angry. Shawn was bruised and bleeding, and Detective Peterson was the only one in site. Lassiter cracked his knuckles; he was seriously going to kill Randall. Really. Really. Kill him.

"Lassie!" Shawn was up. "Don't."

"What do you mean don't? !"

"Because he didn't do anything, and I'm not worth it."

"What – worth it? Shawn? How could you? Why would you think that?"

Lassiter was at a loss of words, Shawn so was too worth it! He turned to say something else, but an ambulance was pulling up.

"Shawn lets go." Randall was stepping a bit closer, and Lassiter had to keep from growling at the other man.

"I have to go Lassie." Shawn stepped away with Randall. Lassiter reached out.

"Shawn." Lassiter's hand just managed to touch Shawn's back. Shawn seethed a bit at the contact and actually lurched away.

"Lassie. I'm going." Shawn followed Randall to the ambulance. Lassiter stood in place watching him leave. It was the most painful thing he had ever seen, and yet he knew this is exactly how Shawn must've felt when he walked out on him.

Lassiter watched as Randall helped Shawn up into the back of the vehicle and got in with him. The ambulance drove away and Lassiter bit his lip. Well shit. If the guilt hadn't been horrible before, it was miserable now. Lassiter took a long breath and looked to his hand, blood. Nothing but blood. Shawn's blood. Lassiter's breath hitched and he looked to the ground where Shawn had been standing – more blood. Shawn's blood. No Shawn. All of Lassiter's thought went rushing back to that dream he had in the hospital. Lassiter had to clench his jaw to keep from shaking. He turned on his heel and went back to his car. He was going back to Henry's, and he was telling the elder Spencer he couldn't do it. He was an ass hole, and Shawn deserved so much better.

"Henry." Lassiter swung the door closed behind him as he came back into Henry's house. "Forget about Shawn. I saw him, and it doesn't look like its going to happen." Lassiter's last word was cut a bit short as he went into the living room and saw Kayla standing there with a gun clasped in her hand. Henry was in his chair, sitting perfectly still, his eye trained on the girl.

"Detective." Kayla greeted. "Fancy seeing you here."

"How did you find this address?" Lassiter asked.

"I'm the one asking the questions." Kayla's voice was stern. "Now please – sit."

For now Lassiter did as he was instructed. At this point in time, Kayla was the one with the gun. Lassiter was sure that if he made a move, she'd fire and either kill him – or even worse, Henry. Lassiter had to play it out so that it didn't happen.

"Okay." Kayla seemed pleased. "We're getting somewhere." She moved the gun between the two men, quite frankly, she meant business. "Where's Shawn?"

"I don't know." Henry answered honestly.

"Very unlikely." Kayla said. "Daddy dearest is a fucking liar."

"He's telling the truth." Lassiter said. "The police haven't been able to find you. Shawn was put into witness protection; we don't even know his name."

"Then you know where he is." Kayla trained the gun on Lassiter. "You have five seconds."

Lassiter and Henry locked eyes for a second, it was an action that went completely unnoticed by Kayla, but the two men seemed to get the same idea. After all they were both trained professionals.

"Carlton if you tell her where my son is, I will kill you!"

"She's going to kill you anyway old man, unless we give her Shawn – right Kayla?"

"Shut up both of you! And what do you mean unless?" Kayla didn't sound sure.

"Look. I've seen the light." Lassiter came up with the dirtiest, must disgusting lie he could think of to appease her. "I've been going to Church, following the light. My actions prior were – disgusting; being gay was a curse – a sin. I'm repenting. I've spoken to god; I know what he needs me to do. Shawn is a dirty fag, an abomination; he needs to be brought to justice. I'll tell you where he is, but I can't die a sinner. You need to let me live so I can heal."

Kayla didn't move her gun, but her resolve softened a bit. "You're telling me the truth?"

"He is." Henry was on board. "I've only been protecting Shawn because he's my son, but if god truly wants to bring him to justice – I can't say no. Tell her where he is Carlton."

"The Barbara. It's a small hotel on Beckingridge Rd."

Kayla kept her gun aimed, and she moved across the floor to Henry's phone, pulling on the chord until it came clear off the wall. Small bits of dry wall coming with it. She then held her hand out to Henry. "Cell phone."

Henry nodded and produced his cell phone handing it to her.

"You are NOT calling the police when we leave." Kayla told Henry.

"When we leave?" Lassiter repeated.

"You're coming with me." Kayla snapped. "If god truly wants you to bring Shawn to justice, then you're going to kill him and I'm going to watch."

"Understood."

"Now get up!" Kayla raised her voice again, and Lassiter was up and walking to the door.

"If you're lying to me, I WILL kill you." Kayla said then. "Do you have handcuffs?"

"Yes."

"Give them to me."

Lassiter produced his handcuffs and went over to Kayla who promptly used them to handcuff herself to Lassiter.

"This way you can't run."

Lassiter took a breath. He wasn't expecting that.

_Keep it, together._

Kayla was rough with her movements and practically dragged Lassiter out of the house. She kept her gun trained at Henry, giving him the order to not make a single move until she and Lassiter were out of site. The door closed behind them, and Kayla was hurrying across the yard with Lassiter in tow.

The second they were out of site, Henry was on his feet. He knew he didn't have a lot of time. The Barbara was only about nine blocks into town from his place. He went into the kitchen and grabbed his cell phone for work, speed dialling the chief.

"Karen its Henry. We have Kayla Atkinson, but you have to move fast."

"She handcuffed herself to Detective Lassiter?" Back at the station Chief Vic sounded a bit surprised, but she trusted Henry's word, and with a quick thanks she hung up on him. She was on her feet and heading into the main part of the building calling for everyone's attention.

"Alright everyone listen up! This is serious, so I'm only going to say this once, and we HAVE to act fast. Kayla Atkinson has made an appearance. Coral Haven Police had no luck, and now it's our turn again! She is currently on route to The Barbara hotel. I need every car and uniform available there immediately, surround the area but do not reveal yourselves until absolutely necessary. Please keep in mind; she currently has Detective Lassiter in custody. My aim is to get him out alive! Do I make myself clear?"

She spoke fast, but everyone seemed to understand.

"Now go!" The Chief ordered. Everyone split. The Chief then turned to Juliet. "O'Hara sit!"

Juliet cringed and sat back down looking a bit defeated. "Chief, Lassiter's my partner!"

"Your partner will be just fine, trust your co-workers to do their job, as for you. You're staying out of the cross fire. Fill out Wednesday's night report to keep yourself occupied."

"But Chief-"

"No buts." The Chief softened. "It's going to be a long nine months for you. I understand, and this situation really doesn't help, but please understand. Everything is under control."

Juliet took a breath. "Alright."

"I have to get to the hotel before Kayla does." The Chief said. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck." Juliet waved her off. As soon as the Chief was gone, Juliet was sinking back into her chair and turning it around to face her desk; she grabbed her phone and dialled the first number she thought of.

"Hey babe, it's me."

"Juliet." Gus' voice was always soothing to her. "What's wrong?"

"We're closing in on Kayla."

"Seriously?" Gus sounded thrilled. "That's wonderful! That means we're getting Shawn back!.. But wait, you don't sound excited."

"She's heading for The Barbara." Juliet explained. "I don't know all the details, but she managed to grab Carlton. She has him as a captive. I'm freaking out."

"Hey calm down." Gus said. "I'm on my way over."

"I don't want that." Juliet said. "I can't believe I'm saying this, I don't want you to get hurt, but I'd feel safer if you were at the Barbara too. Nowhere near the crossfire though. I just need you to call me right away in case something happens."

"You're sure?" Gus was willing to do it if it meant his lady had some peace of mind. "I won't get too close, somewhere off to the side maybe?"

"Thank you."

"No problem baby."

They hung up, and there was a moment where Juliet just sat there looking at her phone. About three seconds passed before she did something very unlike her.

"Oh screw it!" She was out of her chair, and grabbing her gear, she was out the door.

While Shawn was getting patched up, Randall had went back to get his car. He got back to the hospital just as Shawn was free to go. Shawn gave him a pathetic wave and got into his car.

"The bank is closed." Randall said lightly.

"Doesn't matter." Shawn said. "We've got work to do."

"Before we do ANYTHING." Randall started. "First, I have to check out of the hotel, and inform my Chief you ran off on me."

"So you're on board?" Shawn said.

"Yeah. I'm on board." Randall said. "I became a cop to catch bad guys, and sometimes following orders doesn't cut it."

Shawn gave a bit of a laugh. "You got a wild streak in you."

"Yes." Randall said. "I try."

"I see why Marcus likes you."

"Yeah?"

"Oh yeah." Shawn encouraged. "I knew him pretty well; I think you're perfect for him."

Randall took a breath. "Thank you, coming from you – that means, quite a bit."

"Don't mention it Randy cop."

They didn't say anything after that, and as they got closer to the hotel for check out, Shawn kept noticing police cars between buildings.

"Um, Randall?" Shawn decided to point this out to him.

"Yeah?"

"We've passed about three undercover police cars."

"You're sure?" That caught Randall a little off guard.

"Yeah." Shawn said. "That means they're closing in on a suspect right?"

"Usually." Randall confirmed. "Chances its Kayla?"

"She's the only one I know who is at large right now."

"Okay." Randall brought the car to a halt, and pulled over about a street away from the hotel. "We're waiting it out then."

"What!" Shawn was appalled. "What happed to being on my team, the wild side?"

"Shawn, the SBPD are here, chances are if we show up, we're screwing up their plan and putting you into danger. Your team is fine and dandy, but let's see how this situation goes first."

Shawn huffed. "Alright alright."

"Shawn." Randall said.

"Yeah?"

"Get down."

"Say what now?"

"Get down!" Randall pulled on Shawn, forcing him out of the seat and below eye level, Randall joined him close to the floor of the car.

"Problem? !" Shawn asked in an angry albeit whispered huff.

"I saw Kayla."

"Sweet!"

"No not sweet! She's heading for the hotel." Randall kept his voice down.

"Really?" Shawn said. "Which is exactly where the police want her. Randy cop, if the SBPD truly have this, I NEED to watch. It would be – so – SO satisfying."

"I understand your point of view, but she has someone with her, it might get sticky."

Shawn got a weird feeling in his stomach. "Who does she have with her?"

"I didn't get a good look." Randall admitted sheepishly.

"Well look." Shawn said. "Then give it to me straight."

Randall bit his tongue, and taking a second glanced up just in time to see Kayla turn the corner – with Lassiter in tow. It just had to be the detective didn't it?

"McNab." Randall lied. He had a hunch Shawn still very much cared for Lassiter, and would've run out of the car after her in an instant if he had told the truth.

"Buzz?" Shawn used McNab's first name. Randall seethed. God dammit. "She's got Buzz?"

"Shawn." Randall said. "Stay down."

"No! Buzz is my friend, and his wife would be miserable if anything happened to him! Give me your gun!"

"I'm not giving you my gun." Randall said. "We're staying. Here."

"Bull crap!" Shawn hissed. "Gun. Now."

Randall was actually a bit surprised; Shawn really wanted to go save his friend... "Shawn you're not getting my gun."

"And you're not getting the point!" Shawn quipped. "Randall, I'm a very good shot. Believe me. I can take her out faster than any of these cops on scene, and I can do it BEFORE she has a chance to hurt Buzz."

"You can't kill her Shawn." Randall said.

"I didn't say I was going to kill her, just shoot her side, probably a knee cap to get her on the ground. Give Buzz a chance to run while the police grab her."

"Shawn there's two things wrong with that scenario." Randall sighed. "A, she has herself handcuffed to her captive, and B, it's not McNab."

Shawn's face went slack. "Randall, who does Kayla have?"

Again, Randall seethed. "Lassiter." He regretted telling Shawn immediately.

"Randall." Shawn's composure because very tense, and intimidating. Randall in that second actually feared Shawn. "Give. Me. Your. Gun."

"Shawn, I legally can't do that."

"And I legally can't smash your head against the steering wheel to knock you out, but it's going to happen if there isn't a gun in my hand by the time I count to three."

"You're threatening me?"

"Times up!"

"Wait? What? You didn't even start coun-"

Shawn was up, his hands on Randall forcing him down. Randall's head hit the steering wheel and he was out. Shawn reached down and grabbed the gun, checking quick to make sure it was loaded. He wasn't thinking, his mind was on autopilot. The only thought going through his head being that Kayla had Lassie. HIS Lassie. That wasn't going to fly at all. Shawn pushed himself out of Randall's car and headed for the hotel. He'd apologize to Randall later; right now he had to go get his man.

As the Chief ordered, every available police car was in hiding, Kayla hadn't managed to see any of them, but Lassiter did, and he knew he could count on Henry to get the job done. He was actually relieved. He looked to Kayla as they got closer and closer to the hotel.

"We might have to do some coaxing. I don't know what room he's in."

"It better not take long." Kayla warned. "Or I'll bloody up your other hand."

Lassiter's hand still had Shawn's blood on it. Kayla was stupid enough to think it was Lassiter's blood. She hadn't even asked what happened, not that Lassiter expected her too.

The Chief was inside the hotel lobby, she was doing her best to blend in, but she could see Kayla approaching through the glass doors, and she casually brought her hand to her ear as if to adjust an earring. She tilted her head, speaking low into the wire she had wrapped around her ear.

"Suspect is approaching." The Chief said. "All units ready when I say go."

"Roger." The response came from one of her units. The Chief took a breath as Kayla got closer; Kayla was reaching for the door.

"Ready..." The Chief said. "Okay everyone, on the count of three."

"One..."

From another side street, Juliet had met up with Gus and they could see the hotel from where they were standing. The alley they were in not being anywhere near big enough for a car.

"There's Kayla." Gus said. "And Lassiter."

"Okay..." Juliet was reaching for her gun.

"Two..."

The Chief took a breath and was about to say three, when Shawn popped up out of nowhere a good 12 feet behind Kayla and Lassiter. "What the..." The Chief pressed her wire. "Hold your fire!"

"Chief." One of the units responded. "What is Spencer doing here?"

"I don't know. Let's hope Kayla doesn't turn around."

"Chief, Spencer has a gun."

"What?" The Chief took a harder look, and her eyes widened a bit.

"Where the hell did Shawn come from!" Juliet fell back her hand falling away from her own weapon. "What the hell is he doing?"

"You're asking me?" Gus exasperated. "I don't know I didn't even know he was in the neighbourhood!"

"Hey Kayla!" Shawn shouted for her attention. Back in the hotel lobby, the Chief cringed. The hell was Spencer thinking?

Kayla stopped, and grinned when she heard Shawn's voice. She went to turn around to greet him, when she heard a gun shot. It rang out, nice and loud. Loud to the point, she couldn't feel the pain. She didn't even notice she had started bleeding. She just fell to her knees.

Lassiter had been walking next to Kayla, he hadn't had much of a choice. He saw the Chief sitting in the lobby and tried not to pay too much attention to her – she was blending in after all. However the Chief looked up, and right passed them, her mouth hanging open slightly. Lassiter knew then, someone was behind them. He just wasn't expecting it to be Shawn.

"Hey Kayla!"

The shot rang out a split second later, and Kayla was down. Lassiter was in shock. Did Shawn just? ...Shoot? Lassiter had to struggle not to fall with Kayla who was no on her knees struggling to breathe, her free hand pressed to her stomach where blood was forming.

Shawn was shaking. He had never actually shot a human being before. Criminal or not...He really didn't like it. The gun was still aimed, and he couldn't believe he had actually done it.

"Oh...oh my god..." Gus and Jules shared the same voice, Shawn just shot somebody.

"Move it!" The Chief moved fast, she was out of the hotel and right at Lassiter's side. "Carlton get down so she can lie down."

Lassiter moved to his knees, Kayla lying down. She was shaking uncontrollably. "What – what happened?"

"You were shot." Lassiter told her.

"By – by the fag?"

"Yeah." Lassiter said, he looked up to Shawn who was still holding the gun – and shaking. His heart went out to him. Shawn had every right, but Lassiter knew if Kayla didn't make it, Shawn wouldn't be able to handle it. "By the fag." As he spoke he pulled the keys to his hand cuffs out of his pocket and worked on releasing himself.

As soon as he was free he took off his jacket and handed it to the Chief. "Here. Use this to apply pressure."

The Chief grabbed the coat, and with one hand pressed down on Kayla's wound. Her other hand reaching for her ear telling one of her units to call for an ambulance.

"Shawn..." Lassiter kind of let the scene unfold around him. At this point he was more concerned for Shawn who couldn't stop shaking. "You can put the gun down now."

Shawn took a long shaky breath; his arm fell to the side lazily, the gun sliding down his leg. "Are you okay? – Did she hurt you?"

"No." Lassiter said. "She didn't hurt me. She only wanted to hurt you."

"I – I shot her." Shawn confessed. "I didn't think I could, at least not like that – I just wanted to disarm her, but then I saw you – and my mind just...Arrest me."

"No one's arresting you." Lassiter spoke calmly. "Just breathe. In this case you're walking away."

"Lassie..." Shawn's voice cracked a little. "I'm so sorry."

It was that tone in Shawn's voice that made Lassiter lose every ounce of his resolve. He went straight to Shawn and took him in his arms hugging him close. "No, I'm sorry. For everything."

Shawn leaned into Lassiter, his arms coming up to wrap around his back. "You deserve better."

"No I don't Shawn." Lassiter squeezed his eyes shut. Having Shawn back in his arms never felt better. "And even if I did, it doesn't matter. You're the only one I want."

"Even after – my lie? The big secret?"

"Yes." Lassiter said. "So many times, yes."

Shawn lifted his face; his arm went up around Lassiter's neck pulling him down into a crushing kiss. Lassiter made everything so much better, and to feel that kiss again. Shawn was euphoric.

Lassiter had almost feared he was never going to feel this again, but Shawn was here, in his arms, and everything was going to be okay. Lassiter kissed Shawn for all he was worth, and wouldn't – couldn't pull away until he absolutely needed air.

The ambulance arrived, and paramedics were pushing the Chief away and loading Kayla up. They took the gun away from her and proceeded to work.

"Officer Colton." The Chief touched her ear.

"Chief?"

"Come out of your vehicle, have Officer Reilly drive it back. You're to escort the paramedics and Kayla Atkinson to the hospital."

"Roger." Colton was on his way.

"Chief?" The message was coming from another officer. "Shawn and Lassiter are kissing."

"They both have black eyes." Another officer commented.

"When the hell did that happen?"

Too many people were talking into the wire at once. The Chief blinked, and looked over to where Shawn and Lassiter were embraced, and could only really shrug. They had just been through a lot, they could have their moments. "Its none of your business." The Chief spoke loud and clear into her wire. "O'Hara what the hell are you doing here?"

"Wednesday night report!" Juliet huffed. "You knew it wasn't going to happen when all this was happening."

"Uh huh..." The Chief shook her head and pointed to Gus. "And I supposed he came willingly."

"Most definitely." Gus gave a bit of a strut.

"Well then." The Chief said. "You can go break up the lovebirds, I want everyone to report back to the station."

Gus looked over to Shawn and Lassiter, who didn't look like they were moving anytime soon.

Shawn needed air. He loved Lassiter, and this reunion was wonderful – but – breathing and – Randall. "Randall." Shawn pushed a bit at Lassiter. "Oh – oh god! Randall!" Shawn completely forgot he had knocked Randall out.

"Say what now?" Lassiter froze. Not that he wasn't thrilled to have Shawn back, but when your lover spontaneously said the name of another man whilst in your embrace, you kind of had a right to be concerned. "Shawn? What's this about Randall?"

"He wouldn't give me his gun." Shawn rambled. "I wanted to save you, and he wouldn't let me, so I kind of – knocked him out. He's parked near the edge of Wood St."

"...You knocked out a detective?"

"To save you."

"You knocked out – A DETECTIVE? !"

"Are you mad?"

"I am...actually really proud of you." The fact that it was Randall made it that much better. Randall had started out in this case a real big douche, and Lassiter still kind of disliked him for it.

"Hey guys!" Gus popped up. "The Chief says we have to go to the station. All of us."

"Soon!" Shawn promised. "I have to go see if Randall's okay."

Randall was okay, though a little pissed. He came too after a few minutes, and wasn't pleased that it was Shawn of all people who had managed to knock him out while he was on duty. He was about to get out of his car and go to the hotel when Shawn scared the crap out of him by tapping on the window.

"Randy cop! How's the head?"

Randall jumped in his seat, and held a hand to his chest. Shawn had scared him. Little jerk. Randall rolled down his window. "It hurts. What the hell happened?"

"Good news!" Shawn presented Randall with his gun. "Lassie is perfectly safe; We're back together, and Kayla's in hospital and soon to be in custody."

"Damn." Randall was actually disappointed. "You knock me out, and I miss ALL of that? You suck Spencer!"

"You left out the part where you shot her." Lassiter had followed Shawn to Randall's car and was standing next to him.

"Oh yeah." Shawn's voice quieted a bit. "I shot her."

"Well." Randall said. "I guess that means we're done here?"

"I guess so." Shawn said. "You okay?"

"Yeah I'll be good." Randall said. "Not my first time being knocked out. I'll call you when I get back to Coral Haven."

"Alright." Shawn said. "Say hi to Marcus for me."

"Alright." Randall gave a polite smile, and starting up his car, he drove away with Shawn waving. When Randall was out of site, Shawn turned back to Lassiter. The two wouldn't hear from Randall or Marcus again until they got a wedding invitation six months later. However that was little to needless information Lassiter turned to face Shawn as Randall drove away.

"Station." Lassiter said.

"If we must." Shawn sighed a bit. He was glad it was over, but he was still freaked out he shot somebody, he kind of just wanted to go see his dad – which was odd.

"Kayla's doctor called, she'll be unconscious for while, but once she's awake she'll be ready for release and placed into custody." The Chief kept her voice steady, and everyone stood around her desk.

"Thank god." Gus added in. "She was becoming quite the pain."

"Seconded." Juliet agreed.

"I'm just happy she's going to be okay." Shawn said. "She'll serve her time, a very long time. She deserves it."

"Speaking of which." Lassiter said. "Chief, Shawn did shoot her. Are there any repercussions?"

The Chief leaned back in her chair; she appeared to be thinking long and hard. "Self defence."

"Say what now?" Shawn looked straight at the Chief. "Really?"

"I saw her make a move for Mr. Spencer, didn't you detective Lassiter?"

"She reached for her gun." Lassiter added in immediately.

"Shawn had no choice." Juliet nodded firmly.

"Guys." Shawn cut all of them off. "That's not how it happened."

"Oh yes it is." Gus used his 'don't mess this up' tone.

"So it's agreed then." The Chief didn't seem to want to address it. "Detective Lassiter will fill out an incident report and that'll be the end of it. Now everybody. Get out of my office."

Everyone nodded, and started to file out. Shawn being the last in line. As he got his first foot out the door the Chief stopped him.

"Mr. Spencer?"

Shawn turned. "Yeah?"

"You're welcome."

Shawn took a long breath, and smiled. "Thank you." He left her office, and his arm was grabbed by Lassiter who yanked him into a file room closing the door behind them. He gave Shawn a long, lingering kiss that Shawn melted into. His entire body reacted and he pushed into Lassiter wantonly. Sadly Lassiter ended the kiss just as soon as he started it.

"So I've been thinking." Lassiter said. "About, the whole – you not being psychic thing."

"Really?" Shawn froze in place. His confession was still a raw subject. He was afraid of what Lassiter was about to say. "Why?"

"Because." Lassiter said quietly. "I can't figure out why you chose to tell me."

"I needed to." Shawn said. "We're getting married after all – aren't we?" He never took off the ring.

"Absolutely!" Lassiter had no doubt in his mind he still wanted to marry Shawn. "But you know, I'm in the know now, and though I do have certain legal obligations...I haven't followed through."

Shawn blinked. "You haven't? W- why not?" Though he did wonder why no one had said anything.

"Because." Lassiter shrugged. "I decided that watching you dance around making the rookies look like fools? Oddly hot. You're just not allowed to do it to me anymore."

Shawn was shocked. Utterly shocked. Lassie – HIS Lassie was getting off on breaking the law? Shawn's face broke into a grin. "You're dirty."

"You love it." Lassiter grinned and pulled Shawn in for another kiss. A kiss Shawn was more than happy to give back.

**Epilogue(5 Months Later/ Roaring Wedding Bells)**

It was a wedding. The ceremony was small, only about 40 people having been invited. The church was quaint, but the reception hall was beautifully decorated with cerulean blue and yellow. Gus was still a shivering mess in his suit – he still couldn't believe it – he was married! Married! Married with a baby on the way!

"Calm down." Juliet put a hand on Gus' back. "It's happening, it's real." She gave a sweet laugh. Her wedding dress fit her like a dream, flowing lace sleeves that ended at the elbow, the bottom half extending into two small trains that rested perfectly along the skirt. The skirt being an ankle length and layered in more lace, the soft material making her look like she glided as she walked. The torso, fit her body nicely, shaping out her back and coming around to gently hug the 5 month bump Juliet currently carried.

"God you're beautiful." Gus had been telling her all day, and even though he had said it close to a million times, Juliet blushed every time.

"Stop it." She urged. "We still have a few hours before we can escape to the hotel."

"Right." Gus gave a playful grin before looking around. "Where IS Shawn?"

"Oh." Juliet said. "That's what I came over to say. His cell phone rang. He said he had to go, and that he'd back in soon."

"He left? !" Gus didn't sound happy. As soon as the words left his mouth, Gus heard a roar, followed by a loud purr, and suddenly he understood. "His bike's fixed."

"Come on." Juliet tugged on her new husband's sleeve. "Let's go see."

Gus followed Juliet out of the reception hall and wasn't surprised to see Shawn on his bike looking like he had just won the lottery. "Sorry buddy!" Shawn tried. "The phone rang, and it took forever to get all the parts! I was just so excited! I was only gone for a few minutes!"

"I know I know its fine." Gus said. He looked at the bike. "Wow -you can't even tell its been in a fire."

"I know!" Shawn was thrilled.

"Shawn!" Lassiter was coming out of the reception with Henry. "I can't believe you left me with your dad, he's already threatened me three times!"

"Deal with it." Henry quipped, he then regarded Shawn's bike. "Hey you got your bike back."

"Hell yeah I did!" Again Shawn was thrilled. He proved it by revving the engine. The bike came alive; it gave another load roar before coming down to a purr. Shawn looked very – very satisfied, like – he needed a cigarette and a cold shower satisfied.

Lassiter stopped in his tracks. It had been awhile since he'd seen Shawn on his bike. Needless to say, it was a bit hot. Lassiter tugged a bit uncomfortably on his collar.

"Ew." Was all Henry said when he noted the detectives reaction.

"Shawn." Juliet was fanning herself. "Small favour. Could you possibly - do that again?"

"O'Hara!" Lassiter snapped.

"Baby!" Gus' mouth hung open.

"Sorry." Juliet blushed. "Pregnancy hormones."

Lassiter and Gus both gawked at Jules, Shawn on the other hand just broke down into a fit of laughter. It was the first time in months anyone had really heard Shawn laughed like that. Shawn was happy; this meant that everything was back to normal.

"Hey guys, I bet if we got my bike to a field I could pop a mad wheely!"

"Absolutely not!" Lassiter and Henry barked at the same time.

This caused Gus and Jules to start laughing too. Everything was perfectly normal.

**The End.**


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